Being a young, rising, and black tennis star is not an easy job.

Ask Coco Gauff who’s previously echoed that “sometimes you do stick out like a sore thumb. Like in the Black community, tennis is not a huge thing. Nobody really knew anything about it.” But there’s always inspiration to seek in order to focus on your goals. For the 2023 US Open winner, the sources of motivation while growing and taking up tennis were the 30-time combined Slam champions Venus and Serena Williams. But it’s not just their on-court aura that has encouraged Gauff in her career. She’s even taken up the amazing hairstyles of them while infusing her own creative touch.

It’s Black History Month and Gauff couldn’t have chosen a better occasion to express her feelings as a black tennis player representing her community. The World No.3 and 2024 WTA Finals champion took to Instagram to reveal her special collaboration with Carol’s Daughter to celebrate Black History Month. Since her deal with the brand in April 2024, Gauff has been part of its various campaigns but the latest one is special. Being a huge fan of the Williams sisters, Gauff decided to pay “homage” to them with her new hairstyle, having beaded cornrows. In a clip shared on her IG, dated February 25, she said, “I remember obviously watching Venus and Serena when I was young. This look is kind of an homage to them.”

READ: Serena Williams shares photos from surprise Super Bowl halftime show appearance

“They’ve always changed their hair. They had the beads, they had the braids, they had the curls, they had straight, they had everything.” Surely they had. Remember how, when the two sisters began their careers in the early 2000s, they made headlines with their beaded hairstyles?

Take for example Serena’s 1999 US Open campaign. En route to her maiden Slam victory, she turned heads with a look having white and yellow beads in her hair. The same was the case with Venus Williams, who sported beads for the majority of her career on the court. While they became a style statement, she once faced trouble because of them. Back in 1999, during the Australian Open QF against Lindsay Davenport, some of Venus’ beads fell on the ground. It happened when she jumped to serve the ball. The chair umpire then handed her a point penalty for causing disturbance. But she didn’t believe her beads acted as a means to distract her opponent. Later, she continued to flaunt them in subsequent events too.

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Emphasizing how she was moved by the Williams sisters’ looks, Gauff added, “When I became more aware of what I wanted to do with my hair, I was taking inspiration and taking note of what they were doing with their hair.” Reflecting on her black heritage, she further remarked, “I think, as a Black woman especially in a predominantly white sport, you’re obviously very aware of your hair and how it’s perceived. I remember thinking, ‘Is it too Black? Is it too much? Is it too much color?’”

Apart from paying tribute to her idols, Gauff also uses her hairstyle as a way of “self-expression”. She made it evident on a previous occasion.

Remember how Coco Gauff sported the box braids when she burst onto the tennis scene at the 2019 Wimbledon? But prior to the 2023 US Open, she switched the style to fit the cornrows in her hair. “Honestly, I wanted to try this and I got tired of braids all the time. I like to change up my hair,” she said. “I’ve tried color in the past with the braids and everything, but I just needed something different.”

After she signed a multi-year partnership with Carol’s Daughter last season, it opened endless opportunities for her to experiment with her hair. Another reason to join the brand was its focus on uplifting black beauty. “I was using Carol’s Daughter’s products for years before this opportunity came to me,” she said, as reported by PopSugar in April 2024. “As I’ve matured, I’ve started learning to embrace my hair more, and working with this brand felt like perfect alignment. It was founded by a Black woman with an emphasis on family, and given how close I am to mine, this partnership just felt authentic to me.”

Revealing the idea behind changing her styles, Gauff explained, “Whether it’s box braids, twists, or my natural hair, it’s a form of self-expression that I’m really proud of, especially because you still don’t see it very often in our sport.”

But what about tennis? Well, the 2024 Australian Open semifinalist is yet to find her form this season. After crashing out of Melbourne last month, in the QF stage, her journey in 2025 isn’t going smoothly. At the Qatar Open earlier this month, she couldn’t move past the first round. Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk beat her with a score line of 6-2, 7-5. Then at the Dubai Tennis Championships, last week, she failed to impress yet again, losing to compatriot McCartney Kessler in straight sets again, by 6-4, 7-5 to be precise.