BEIJING \u2014 Defending champion Coco Gauff is loving her interaction with fans at the China Open but wouldn\u2019t mind a new nickname \u2014 something ferocious if possible.<\/p>\n
French Open champion Gauff started her title defense in Beijing with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Kamilla Rakhimova on Friday and will next face Leylah Fernandez in the WTA 1000-series tournament.<\/p>\n
Gauff has received a number of gifts this week and has been affectionally given two nicknames by the Chinese fans: \u201cFruit Salad Queen,\u201d a reference to her signature fruit salad, which she often snacks on for an energy boost.<\/p>\n
The other is \u201cAmbassador of Beijing\u201d because of her frequent praise of the Chinese capital and its attractions.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old American said she approves of both, but wouldn\u2019t mind one inspired by an animal which reflects her tenacity on court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I have a challenge for the Chinese fans,\u201d Gauff said in comments on the WTA Tour\u2019s website. \u201cI would like to know what animal resonates with me. I mean, fruit salad is cool, but I think being named after an animal is cooler. I would like to see what animal they think I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she\u2019s loving those gifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese fans are great,\u201d she said. \u201cI have literally so many gifts, more gifts than I\u2019ve gotten on Christmas in my entire life. I purposely packed light because last year I packed full and it was a struggle to get everything back. I do keep all of them. A lot of the stuffed animals are a decoration in my house. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think they\u2019re the best, most creative fans. I love coming here. I came prepared and brought an extra bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING \u2014 Defending champion Coco Gauff is loving her interaction with fans at the China Open but wouldn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-171721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}