Did tennis star Coco Gauff donate $3 million to support Texas flood victims? No, that's not true: The story was spread by unreliable clickbait websites on Facebook. There were no media reports about such a donation and Gauff's social media accounts did not make any mention of it either.
The story appeared in an article (archived here) where it was published by Sportdot on July 8, 2025 under the title "BREAKING: Tennis star Coco Gauff has donated $3.0 million to support victims and aid in the search and rescue of those missing in the devastating flash floods in Texas. Fans were stunned to learn that Coco Gauff personally traveled to the disaster site to offer hands-on help...". It opened:
Tennis sensation and reigning U.S. Open champion **Coco Gauff** has stunned the world--not with a powerful forehand this time, but with a powerful act of compassion. In the aftermath of the catastrophic flash floods that swept through southern Texas this week, Gauff has **donated \$3.0 million** to support emergency relief, search and rescue efforts, and long-term rebuilding in the hardest-hit communities.
But that wasn't all. In an extraordinary move that defied the standard celebrity playbook, Gauff **personally flew to the disaster zone** yesterday, joining first responders and volunteers in the flooded neighborhoods of Fort Bend County. Images and videos surfaced of the 20-year-old tennis star **loading food trucks, handing out supplies, and even helping in evacuation efforts** alongside the National Guard.
That story was false, and was re-shared along with a viral July 8 Facebook post (archived here) and several other posts on that social network.
A search of Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) for the words "Coco Gauff" and "flash floods" yielded no relevant results, meaning we found no corroboration for the claim.
Furthermore, the claim that Gauff had announced her intentions was false. We found no trace of any such statement on her official Facebook page or on her TikTok, Instagram and X accounts.
The article also claimed Serena Williams had tweeted "Coco is not only the future of tennis, she's the future of humanity. What she's doing right now is powerful beyond words" in response to the action. But a search of William's account showed no such post (archived here).
According to a lookup on whois.com (archived here) , the domain name sportdot.com.nog of the website was only registered on June 21, 2025 by an anonymous person or organization in Nigeria, indicating it was not a well-established news website.
The website posts articles in multiple different languages about a variety of seemingly random topics indicating it may be part of a content farm or spam network. Visitors to the site are sometimes redirected to scammy download websites or porn.
