US OPEN

September 12, 2021

Coco Gauff

Caty McNally

Press Conference

ZHANG-STOSUR/Gauff-McNally

6-3, 3-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Could you each give us your thoughts on today's match.

COCO GAUFF: Obviously not the result that we wanted, but we were there. I think the match was decided within, like, three or four points. I think for next time we know how to do better on those points I guess.

Our opponents, Shuai and Sam, played a great match. There's a reason why they've both had a couple Grand Slams, great results in Grand Slams.

Hopefully next time we can play them in a final and we'll be on a different situation.

CATY McNALLY: Yeah, it was definitely difficult, with a couple points here and there, as she said. We had some breakpoint opportunities which I think if we could have just converted on those, the result probably would have been different, I think, in my eyes.

Yeah, they played a great match, stepped up when they needed to. Now we know better for the next time we play to take those opportunities, be ready on those breakpoints, give it everything we have to convert.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you reflect on three years ago winning the junior championship here, just how it's different this year.

CATY McNALLY: Yeah, I mean, it's been a great journey so far. Winning the juniors, now we're playing on Arthur Ashe Stadium, it's pretty cool to see how far we've come.

I think it just shows how much better we've gotten as a team. We want to do better. We can't wait to be back out on that court again.

But I think from day one when we played, we just had a special relationship, a special partnership. I think we knew this was coming. I think we knew finals were coming down the road. I still think we'll be back out on that court again with a different result sooner than later.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I agree. It's amazing how far we've come. I'm glad that Caty is able, we're able to do this journey together. There's no other person or player that I would rather do this with. I know that we'll be Grand Slam champions eventually.

Q. Coco, I know we all understand the disappointment of the loss, but at the end we saw some uncharacteristic frustration from you. Can you tell us a bit about the emotions of racquet toss, bashing, anything you want to say to help us understand that?

COCO GAUFF: I mean, I lost a Grand Slam final. There's nothing else to say. Just disappointment. I didn't mean for the racquet to go as it did, but I did throw it. Probably not the best behavior on my side.

But I don't think there's any explanation I can do for the frustration. I mean, we had our chances. I knew that. I think the crowd knew that. Yeah, I don't mean to do that in the moment, but I let my emotions take over.

I kind of don't regret it. I only regret the racquet went so far and almost hit the kid. He was fine. I gave it to him. I actually spoke to him before the match, and he's fine. Yeah, I think I was just frustrated for losing a Grand Slam final.

Q. What would you say to those individuals who wonder whether players like you on the doubles and singles side, Carlos, Emma, Leylah, you're somehow jumping the line by going so deep into a Grand Slam, jumping over players who might be five to seven years older than you are, but have not gone that far.

CATY McNALLY: Yeah, I don't know if there's like a line. I don't know. I just think we all believe in ourselves, believe in our games. We've all played at really high levels, especially in juniors. We've all played in Grand Slams, all of us. I think that's given us a lot of exposure to what we're getting ourselves into.

I think we're just taking on these big moments head first. We're not really afraid to play our games and get the crowd involved, to win these big matches.

I think it's just awesome and inspiring to me, I know myself, I know to Coco, other young players, that anyone can do it.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I agree.

I mean, success has no timeline to it. It can happen early; it can happen later. There are a lot of players that it happened later in their career, and there's a lot of players it happened earlier in their career. There's players like Serena who have success throughout the whole career (smiling).

Like Caty said, I don't think there's any line or anything. I think especially the young generation, the new generation coming up just really believe in themselves, don't really care about how many more years of experience the opponent on the other side of the court has.

At the end the day it's a tennis match. Nothing bad is going to happen. At least for me today, it felt like life or death on that match point. I think now after having time to reflect about it, I'm just really proud of how far Caty and I have come, and I know we're going to go even further.