Roger Federer has not yet taken heed of Coco Gauff’s public plea
It’s been nearly a year since tennis sensation Coco Gauff called on Roger Federer to launch a women’s version of the Laver Cup. The two-time Grand Slam winner took to social media last January, following her quarter-final departure at the Australian Open, to voice her suggestion for the annual event that currently only invites male players.
The tournament, which pits Team Europe against Team World, is owned by Swiss legend Federer, who also helped devise its format before it was added to the tennis calendar in 2017.
When Gauff made her appeal, she was one of four American players in the WTA top 10 rankings, alongside Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys – now the reigning Australian Open champion – and Emma Navarro.
Since then, Navarro has slipped to 15th while Amanda Anisimova has climbed to fourth after reaching the Wimbledon and US Open finals last year. Last year, Gauff posted a photo of the American foursome on Instagram with the caption: “USA vs World Laver Cup????”
However, her plea seems to have been ignored as last year’s Laver Cup, held in September, continued to be an all-male affair, with Team World clinching the win. Whether Gauff’s dream becomes reality remains uncertain.
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Todd Godsick, who partnered with Federer to establish the competition, indicated in 2024 that creating a women’s version would require careful consideration and time. He explained: “It will take a little time to think about a fitting format for a tournament with women.
“First of all, we want to reach our full potential with the Laver Cup for men, then we will look at various possibilities. I think we would have to name and organise it differently, but the format works. Hopefully we can come up with something in the future.”
Godsick added: “It is our aim to be like the Ryder Cup in golf, but the Ryder Cup is 90 years ahead of us.” Some have proposed incorporating female players into the existing Laver Cup to create a mixed-gender tournament, but Godsick swiftly dismissed that notion.
“Look, there already exists the Hopman Cup,” he pointed out. “I don’t know what shape and form or when it actually takes place now, but there is an event. I think it’s now in the spring or in the summer, it used to be in January before the Australian Open, which combines men and women.
“The format is very important in this one and we spent a lot of time before we started, making sure, we tried to get it right. We didn’t know it would be as successful and it would sort of hit and stick as well as it did.
“But I think all of a sudden if we change this and added women to it, it would sort of be like the Hopman Cup that kind of exists already.”
Gauff is once again going for glory at the Melbourne major, where she has a 16-6 win-loss rate. Her furthest run in the tournament came in 2024 when she reached the semi-final but was defeated by eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka.
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