CHINA OPEN

October 7, 2023

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

I. SWIATEK/C. Gauff

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Coco, obviously tough result today, but a great trip to the semifinals here in Beijing. Can you give us your thoughts on the match and the tournament overall.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, overall it was a great tournament. I think today wasn't my best tennis. I was experiencing some physical issues. But Iga, she played a great match and I hope she does well for the rest of the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. We saw what the medical timeout looked like. Right shoulder. Can you give us an idea of when that started to affect you and did you feel it this morning?

COCO GAUFF: I started feeling it in my match with Sakkari yesterday. It wasn't to the scale it was today. We worked on it last night. There's only so much you can do.

I was feeling it in the first set. I'm not one that likes to call for the physio. My coach recommended that I call them. It did help.

But it's definitely a new experience. I'm not used to playing with pain in general. It's not like a terrible injury from what I'm told. Just with some rest, it will be fine.

But, yeah, it was difficult to go through circumstances that you're not used to. I feel like when you're experiencing pain, mentally your whole mind starts, Is it serious? Should it keep playing? Should the not? And yeah....

Q. On the match itself, did you feel as though Iga was doing anything particularly different? Was it what you were expecting? Anything you saw on your side that she leveled up at all?

COCO GAUFF: I think she played a little bit more aggressive or, like, consistently aggressive compared to Cincinnati. I think Cincinnati I got a little bit more errors than today.

Honestly, like, it's tough for me to assess the match right now because my mind was just not 100% in it. I feel like I need to watch it and really know what's going on.

Usually I'm able to assess the matches right away, what I did right, what I did wrong. I think my focus, a lot of it, was just on what I was feeling, not more so what she was doing or what I was doing. I was just trying my best to get as many points as I could.

I had the feeling when I called the physio it was going to be a tough match for me to try to be able to win.

Q. On the streak, what makes you most proud about being able to string those along across big events?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, one of the goals that I set earlier in the year was for me to do well in the big events, do better on the 1000 level. I accomplished that goal. I'm really proud of myself.

I think that I have a lot to improve on. So I think that's what makes me excited for next year. After WTA Finals I have some more weeks to really practice and improve. I do notice, like, my game gets better every time I go through even like a two-week break of just practicing.

Yeah, I'm really proud of myself. Hopefully next year I can continue this consistency, maybe not 16 in a row on a consistent level, but as long as I can string along some wins, 1000 title wins, and hopefully a Grand Slam would be a great goal for me next year.