Twitter fan Michelle Obama is Gauff’s role model

Teenage sensation Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff’s life-changing experience at Wimbledon moved to a new level on Saturday with former United States First Lady Michelle Obama tweeting about her. The 15-year-old -- who has been the star of the first week of the championships in both her on and off court performances -- said she was ecstatic about that as Barack Obama’s wife was her role model.

“I just saw the tweet,” said Gauff after she had lost her mixed doubles first round match on Saturday. Obama had tweeted: “Coco is terrific.” “We don’t talk personally. I don’t have her number or anything. I would like that,” added Gauff. “I was super excited. She’s one of my role models. “So it was just cool to see that she knows I exist.”

Gauff, who has come the whole way from qualifying to reach the last 16 and plays former world number one Simona Halep on Monday, said she liked the dignified way Michelle Obama behaved. “Just the way she kind of handles herself,” said Gauff.

“When she was, when Mr. (Barack) Obama was in office (2009-17), she got a lot of slack for it, but I think she carried herself well the whole term.” For Gauff -- who has also had pop superstar Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles post her on Instagram -- there have been many highlights over the past week but she picked out two in particular.