Who is Alycia Parks? Meet the big-serving American set to face Coco Gauff at the 2024 Australian Open

Coco Gauff will see her undefeated start to 2024 come under threat once again as she attempts to reach the second week of the Australian Open for a second straight year.

After surviving stiff opposition from one American in Caroline Dolehide in the second round Gauff will take on another countrywoman in the third: 23-year-old Alycia Parks.

Though Parks is more than three years older than the reigning US Open champion—and could possibly beat her in a 100 m sprint—the unseeded American is only just coming into her own on the WTA circuit, making only her first main draw appearance in Melbourne.

Get to know the big-serving Atlanta native before she attempts to snap Gauff’s nine-match streak in Grand Slam matches:

The Basics

• DOB: December 31, 2000
• Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia
• Height: 6’1” (1.85 m)
• Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
• Career-high rank: No. 40
• Coach: Michael Parks

The Bio

Parks is famous for her fearsome delivery: she tied Venus Williams for the second-fastest serve ever struck at the 2021 US Open with a 129 mph first serve.

That kind of speed is unsurprisingly at its most effective indoors, on which she won a pair of WTA 125K titles at the end of 2022 to make her Top 100 debut. She continued the trend two months later when she stunned Caroline Garcia to win her first WTA title in Lyon. Rocketing up 30 more spots in the rankings off that result, Parks was able to make her debut at most of the tour’s biggest events, including the Mutua Madrid Open, where she upset former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka en route to the third round.

Arguably her biggest success of a breakout 2023 came in doubles; partnering fellow American Taylor Townsend, she won her first WTA 1000 title at the Western & Southern Open.

This Week

Parks is at last modulating her power game so it might match the elements. After rallying from a set down to defeat Daria Snigur in the first round, she knocked out 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez in straight sets to book a first meeting with Gauff. In two matches she has already struck a combined 23 aces and was equally impressive off the ground, managing 30 winners against Fernandez alone.

Where Gauff has tended to rely on her athleticism in years past, the No. 4 seed has added more oomph to her shots to ease through her first seven matches of the season.

Might a strong serving day from Parks be enough to unsettle the on-fire teenager?