ROLAND GARROS

June 9, 2021

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

B. KREJCIKOVA/C. Gauff

7-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Coco, I'm curious about your thoughts on the Olympics, whether you plan to play, what your concerns are?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I'm definitely planning on playing the Olympics. I mean, I don't have any concerns. I haven't really thought about it yet, too much about the planning, all the things that go into traveling.

But, yeah, I'm excited to play. I'm just happy that even though today didn't go my way, I guess my result here contributed to making the Olympics.

Q. Obviously it's extremely disappointing. Can you just express your frustrations at not being able to close out that first set, and what looked like was going to be almost a blowout in the second set, your frustrations with the situation?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, I'm obviously disappointed that I wasn't able to close out the first set. To be honest, it's in the past, it already happened. After the match, Enzo (phonetic), my hitting partner, told me this match will probably make me a champion in the future. I really do believe that.

Q. How do you feel about your clay court season overall? Been a really good run for you. How do you feel about your future prospects on it?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, obviously it was a great season. In the future, I mean, I just want to keep continuing to get better. Hopefully next year I'll be better.

But I think that I've learned a lot over this swing and I have a lot that I can take with me later into my next tournaments later this year.

Q. What helps you put difficult or painful losses behind you?

COCO GAUFF: Uhm, I guess reflecting on it. This one will be on my mind for a couple days, for sure. I think just reflecting on it, you know, it's over, so I'm not going to say, Oh, if I did this, if I did that.

I think in the moment I did what I thought was the best decision and I have to stick on that.

Q. You talked about the idea of looking forward. In a couple weeks' time you'll be going back to Wimbledon. What are your thoughts on getting back there two years later? What maybe sticks out the most in your mind as a particular memory from a couple years ago there?

COCO GAUFF: I'm excited to go back, for sure. I don't know. I think my most memorable thing I remember from Wimbledon is just the crowd experience. That was like one of my first matches on a big stadium like that, playing against really great people like Venus Williams. It kind of just was the start of, like, my career, I guess, and making it on the pro tour.

So, yeah, I'm excited to go back. I know it won't be as crowded as normal, but hopefully there are some fans in the stands. I'm just happy that right now I'm healthy and everything. Hopefully that keeps up all the way through Wimbledon.

Q. What is the easiest part for you to adjust from going from the clay to the grass? What is the most difficult part for you to adjust to?

COCO GAUFF: To be honest, it's hard for me to answer that question because I've only done it once in my career really, to be honest. I lost first round of qualifying in the French, so I had a lot of time to get prepared for the grass.

I don't know. This time is obviously going to be a quicker turnaround. I do know that I'll probably be hitting on hard court first, then going to the grass. But, yeah, I really don't have a lot of experience on that yet (smiling).

Q. I've seen that you've teamed up with Microsoft to help school children with technology, to help them learn. What do you enjoy about technology? What are you really good at? Do you think you might be able to help some of us who struggle a bit with technology and find it scary?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, for me I do online school so technology is important. My dad uses it a lot for scouting. He likes the numbers. He's a huge numbers guy.

I guess my advice for technology, I don't really have any. I will say that you'd be surprised the amount of things you can do with a computer. My Surface, I love it. I do all my schoolwork on it. This is probably a bad thing, but sometimes I guess my favorite thing about it is on my classes you can also, like, watch a Netflix show while the class is on (laughter). My teachers probably aren't happy to hear that, but I think we all do it.

Q. About Barbora, your opponent today, what made her tough to play? What does she bring to the game?

COCO GAUFF: I mean, for me the biggest thing she played well in the pressure points. She also redirected the ball really, really well, kind of making me make mistakes. I said this even before going to the match. I knew she was going to play very smart tennis and play the high-percentage plays. That's what she did today.

I think next time I guess going into it, I'm definitely going to focus more making less errors, just trusting myself on the set points. I feel like the set points I did have I did play a little bit passive. That's not kind of how I want to play tennis. I always want to play first-strike tennis. So that's something I'll work on.

Q. Even when you were facing match point, you were still battling really hard. You were really competitive till the end. Where do you think that will to win and competitive spirit comes from? Do you think you were born with it or is it something you've learnt with age?

COCO GAUFF: I kind of always had that thing. I never want to give up. Today I really did fight till the last point. I'm proud that I didn't give up because I could have easily gave up at 5-0 or 5-1.

Yeah, I think losing these matches are going to pay off in the future. I think if I continue fighting like this, other players, maybe if they do have the lead, will start to get nervous because they know I'm not going to give in.