{"id":172659,"date":"2025-09-27T09:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T09:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172659\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T09:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T09:18:07","slug":"coco-gauff-aka-the-fruit-salad-queen-wants-a-new-nickname-from-her-china-open-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172659\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff, aka ‘The Fruit Salad Queen,’ wants a new nickname from her China Open fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING (AP) \u2014 Defending champion Coco Gauff is loving her interaction with fans at the China Open but wouldn’t mind a new nickname \u2014 something ferocious if possible.<\/p>\n

French Open champion<\/a> 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

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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’t mind one inspired by an animal which reflects her tenacity on court.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI guess I have a challenge for the Chinese fans,\u201d Gauff said in comments on the WTA Tour’s 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’s 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

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING (AP) \u2014 Defending champion Coco Gauff is loving her interaction with fans at the China Open but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,4305,88518,88520,88519,21072,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-172659","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-coco-gauff","11":"tag-defending-champion","12":"tag-fruit-salad","13":"tag-kamilla-rakhimova","14":"tag-leylah-fernandez","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172659","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=172659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}