Freshman phenom: Coffee High’s Lainey Griffin wins 912Sports “Girls Tennis Player of the Year”

DOUGLAS, GA – Serena Williams dominated women’s tennis for the better part of 20 years.

Now, Coco Gauff is widely considered as the new face of the sport.

But allow me to introduce you to Coffee High School’s Lainey Griffin, who can say she has something the others do not…being named the Girls Tennis Player of the Year by 912Sports.

“I was just so excited,” Griffin said. “It was really shocking to me. I had no idea.”

Her competition would say otherwise, because Griffin beat almost anyone who stood in her way in 2024, as she won 17 of her 23 matches this past season.

And she is only a freshman.

“For the next three years I plan to work and work and work,” Griffin said. “I’m really passionate about the sport and want to continue to grow as a player.”

Her coach, Sophia Winters, agreed.

“Lainey is naturally a competitor,” Winters said. “I saw her grow this season, and it was unique in how young she is and how much she made herself into a competitor, so it really hasn’t been hard to push her.”

But there would be no tennis player of the year without her brother, Nat Griffin, who was the reason she even got into tennis.

“He was a great tennis player who played in middle school and all throughout high school,” Lainey said. “His determination and passion for the sport drove me to become a tennis player.”

And now he’s passing the torch, er, racket, to his little sister, who hopes to one day reach the level of her role model, and the new face of women’s tennis, Coco Gauff.

“It’s really just about pushing her at this point,” Winters said. “She’s got everything she needs, we just got to challenge her and keep her growing.”