WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 16, 2021

Coco Gauff

Caty McNally

Press Conference

GAUFF-McNALLY/Guarachi-Krawczyk

6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Coco, you mentioned the great support you guys get in the United States. Just describe it in Caty's hometown.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, definitely the crowd was with us from the first point to the last. It was nice to play in front of a full stadium. This is my first time playing in Cincinnati, and I definitely felt the love here.

Q. Caty, I know this is probably repetitive, but comment on your hometown coming out in such droves to support you. The stadium was full, like she said.

CATY McNALLY: Yeah, for sure, it meant a lot to me. With the rain delay, I wasn't sure how many people were going to stick around and come out and support us.

When we walked out there, I literally got the chills just to see so many familiar faces, friends, family, that had been with me from day one. It means so much to me. I'm just so happy that we got the win and we get another opportunity to play in front of them again.

Q. You guys trailed by one three separate times in the first set. What was the message before you go on that big run there?

CATY McNALLY: Well, we have played them before, so we kind of knew what we had to bring. I think we did a good job of serving. We didn't get broke, so we knew that we could break them and keep holding serve and keep playing aggressive, which I think was super helpful. That's what we needed to do against them, and I think we did a really good job of executing that.

Q. You guys go on that run obviously and kind of take all the momentum. Can you describe the kind of groove you guys gone in there?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, starting at the beginning of the match we already had a deuce point on their serve, breakpoint on their serve, so that shows we were coming in aggressive and had opportunities to win that game.

I think we shook it off, and I think we did a good job and being aggressive on their serves, a lot of return winners and unreturnable balls back on the first two. I think that was important, and that's what made the difference in the match today.