Coco Gauff explains story behind 'shovel celebration' following United Cup victory

Coco Gauff has become a United Cup champion on her first appearance at the mixed team event.

Gauff had previously opted to play in Auckland for the first week of the season, having won the title in New Zealand in both 2022 and 2023.

However, this year the American opted for another tournament, despite Gauff admitting she had reservations heading into the United Cup.

These reservations appeared to quickly fade, as Gauff went on to win all seven of her matches at the event and was subsequently named the MVP (most valuable player) by the tournament.

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Coco Gauff reveals that her shovel celebration came from Denis Kudla

Gauff’s on-court contribution to the USA’s final victory against Poland came in singles competition against Iga Swiatek.

Swiatek had spoken about the challenge that Gauff possesses before the match, and that certainly proved to be the case with the American winning in straight sets.

One of the main talking points from this match actually came following match point, with Gauff doing a unique digging celebration followed by a seemingly cold handshake from Swiatek.

This brought up questions about what this handshake meant, to which Gauff revealed in her post-match press conference in Sydney that it came from her retiring teammate Denis Kudla.

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“It came from Denis,” confirmed Gauff. “Honestly, I think it started, like, in my match against China. I was playing [Zhang] Shuai, and she was playing really great tennis.

“You know, he was, like, great digging, keep digging. Then the shovel celebration came from him. I just kind of took it and ran with it. That was the theme of the week for me.”

Gauff’s victory was followed up by Taylor Fritz beating Hubert Hurkacz in a third set tie-break to seal USA’s second United Cup win in three years.

Is Coco Gauff starting to close the gap with Iga Swiatek?

After Gauff’s latest victory over World No.2 Swiatek, the head-to-head between the pair is now at 3-11.

Although this is still very one-sided in Swiatek’s favor, the gap has started to close in recent meetings after Gauff actually lost the first 14 sets against the five-time major winner.

Gauff won her first match against Swiatek en route to the Cincinnati Open title in 2023, before suffering four more defeats in their head-to-head.

After getting her second victory over Swiatek at the WTA Finals in November, Gauff has now won back-to-back matches against the 23-year-old for the first time in her career.

Whether that is a sign of things to come is yet to be known, as Gauff has been vocal about enjoying the United Cup and its more relaxed environment compared to more traditional individual competition.

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