ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

January 4, 2022

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/U. Eikeri

6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Talk us through your first match of the season, your thoughts on the match.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I think the first match is probably if not the toughest match, at least for the nerves, of the season just because you haven't played for a while, you're trying to get back in the groove of things.

Today I was a bit nervous coming in, but I knew that if I just played free, I had a better chance of performing the way I want to.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Did you feel like you played as you expected to given how you've been practicing? If you could rate how you felt you played.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I think I for sure obviously played well the match. I won. But I think I was a little bit nervous in the first couple of games. They were a little bit tight. But after that I think in the second set I started to play more tennis, winning points more on my terms whereas to hers.

She's not that easy to play. She has a tricky serve. She makes a lot of balls in the court. I think I was just trying to make sure I wasn't making too many unforced errors.

Q. What was the focus during the pre-season of getting ready? Working on specific things, getting your game where it needs to be? What was the strategy of your pre-season?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, the strategy of any pre-season for anyone is obviously to physically get better, which I felt like I did do that this pre-season. Obviously tennis-wise working on the whole game. There were some parts of my game that I worked on more than others. Overall we worked on everything pretty much. Not a shot that we didn't work on.

Yeah, it was a lot of hours on the court. I hope that the -- I felt like I had a good pre-season. I hope that this season can kind of show that.

Q. Next match you'll face Ash. What are your thoughts about not just facing her but playing her on a hard court this early in the season?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, I played her before. Obviously the last time we played it didn't end how we both wanted it to. It's a little bit different now on hard court.

I think, I mean, the timing of playing her I don't think matters much. I think, if anything, you want to play the best player - currently she's No. 1 - the best player early in the season because everything will maybe not seem easy but you're starting off strong. You got some things to look forward to, especially Australian Open coming up. This is probably the best matchup I could get.

Obviously you want to win every tournament you play. But the big focus is the Grand Slams. For me playing this tournament was to see how many matches, consecutive matches, I could get in before Australian Open. I think this would be a perfect kind of test for me.

Q. How valuable is having faced Ash in the doubles? Do you learn much from that? Completely different ballgame?

COCO GAUFF: Definitely I think it will help both of us with feeling each other's ball out. But doubles is a very different game than singles. I don't think some of the things she did today she would probably normally do in singles and vice versa. I think tomorrow will be just a completely different match.

I think the only thing that maybe helped is just getting some returns off her serve. I think for her, she can kind of say the same. I think really you just feel the opponent's ball out beforehand. I don't think strategy-wise it changes anything, at least for me. I don't know if it changes anything for her.

Q. If you look back at what you did in 2021, your first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the French Open, what are you targeting in 2022 that would make it better for you?

COCO GAUFF: I mean, the biggest target is winning a Grand Slam. That's the goal. But for me also just continuing to be a better person and better player on the court. I would say handling my emotions a little bit better are something I need to work on, and I worked on. So far today it was pretty well. Hopefully when there's more adversity going on in the matches, I can still keep that straight face, I don't really know, poker face, yeah, poker face in the match.

Q. At age 17 it would be an enormous jump going from a slam quarterfinal to winning one. Is it a silly question to ask do you feel ready to do that? Would that be too soon?

COCO GAUFF: No, I definitely feel ready. I would say honestly I think I felt ready pretty much after 2019 Wimbledon. Going into that tournament obviously it wasn't something I expected to win well. But I think making second weeks in multiple Grand Slams, I think it shows that I can play at that level. Obviously the last two or three matches you really got to bring your game. I think that's what we worked on, fine-tuning some things so in the quarterfinal, semifinal matches, you can get through those.

Q. A bit of a silly question. You saw Spiderman. We have talked about instances where you watch things and apply them on to the court. What did you like about Spiderman and how is that going to influence you as a tennis player?

COCO GAUFF: Oh, I loved Spiderman. It's probably my favorite movie right now. Spiderman and Avatar, probably those two are top tier of my list from movies.

I think I learned a lot from that movie. I like the way he kind of tries to see the good in everyone. Towards the end of the film I think he lost a little bit of that. Hope I'm not spoiling it (laughter). Not going to talk spoilers.

Other than that, no, I learned a lot from him. Like every movie, I'm a kid, every cartoon, I feel like everything has some sort of message whether it's stupid or silly. I think that movie had a message of trying to do what's right and everything.

For tennis? I don't know how it will help me in tennis life. I didn't get anything from it tennis-wise. Maybe I could get some 'spidey senses'. That will help. Personally I think life experiences and everything, that is what I took from it.