Coco Gauff took to social media to share her distaste for a cartoon depicting all the seeded American players at this year's Australian Open.
Gauff, 19, is the highest-seeded American player across both draws and arrives in Melbourne at a career-best ranking of World No. 3. She displaced her good friend and doubles partner Jessica Pegula for that distinction.
Having won a maiden Grand Slam title at last year's US Open, Gauff is one of the favorites to win the Australian Open women's tournament and will enter the event with real momentum. She bagged her seventh career title at the ASB Classic in Auckland in the opening week of the new season.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) captioned a post of all the American seeds in the tournament in Melbourne in the form of caricatures. Aside from Gauff, the likes of Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul, and Emma Navarro are portrayed as passengers waiting to board a bus containing Jessica Pegula, Taylor Fritz, and Frances Tiafoe.
"Worst thing I've ever seen. Like a caricature's artist just decided to make us all look like hideous looking people. The art style is cool for a cartoon show but not for a hype post. Foul."
Gauff was clearly unhappy with the drawing but liked the idea behind it, calling it "cool for a cartoon show" but not a "hype" post as the USTA appears to indicate on Instagram stories.
From the graphic, it also looks like the players are in a rugged area, with two of Australia's iconic animals - kangaroo and koala - also visible in the picture.
The young American will begin her 2024 Australian Open campaign on Monday against unseeded Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. In total, eight Americans are seeded at the year's first Grand Slam, with five of them coming from the men's side.
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