US OPEN

August 28, 2024

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/T. Maria

6-4, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Moving into the third round. Very efficient two-set win, one hour and 20 minutes. Give us your assessment of where your game is right now.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, it was a tricky match. I mean, she's not someone that sometimes you play and you feel great after. Yeah, but overall I thought I did well the first set. I mean, it was close. I got out of those service games.

Obviously could serve better, but off the ground and at the net there were some errors, but I think every time it was the right decision to make. It was just about execution.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your next round you are facing Elina Svitolina. You did play. Your head-to-head is two at a tie right now. You did beat her earlier this year. How do you feel about having to play her next round?

COCO GAUFF: She's obviously a difficult opponent. She's a veteran player. I played her earlier in Auckland, and that was a tough, tough match. I know I'll have to bring my best tennis to win against her.

Q. What is it like when you are going through a match like that and someone is slicing every ball? I don't know that I have ever seen anyone do that to you.

COCO GAUFF: No.

Q. How did you react to it? At what point did you realize, oh, she's actually going to do this all night every ball? What did you do in that situation?

COCO GAUFF: I've played her before two years ago in Auckland, and she definitely was going over at least on the forehand. On the backhand she would slice more. So I think maybe later on maybe as she's getting older, she's slicing more.

I expected her to slice a lot, but I honestly thought she would come over a little bit more. Obviously I thought the percentage would be, like, 70/30 or maybe 80/20, but it was definitely, like, 99/1 (laughing).

Even the couple of times she did go over, it threw me off, and I didn't know whether to hit. I don't know. It was just so strange.

I love Tatjana, her family. She's very annoying to play. I think tonight was just an annoying match. I didn't know. The balls, you were able to hit winners on them, but because she's slicing it, you have to generate all the power.

Sometimes it can be more physically tiring than it looks because you have to generate literally 100% of the power every single time compared to maybe somebody where you can just redirect and do that.

So it was difficult, to say the least, but you know, that's just that type of match that you just kind of have to just get through.

Q. After the match you went to the practice court. How often do you do that? What was the specific goal this evening?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, for me I just hit serves. Obviously I didn't serve great at all. I got lucky. I think I only got broken once, but probably could have, should have gotten broken a couple of more times. So I just hit serves.

Off the ground I felt fine. I felt like I was playing well off the ground for the most part. Obviously in the first set I probably had more errors. But, you know, when you play against her, you just have to expect to miss sometimes because you also don't want to just get into a pushing rally. So, yeah, I just hit more serves.

How often? I really only do it when I don't feel great after a match. Yeah, like my first round, even though it was a quick match, I didn't go back out after because I felt great after. Sometimes I just like to leave with that feeling, but today I didn't feel great after.

But I knew literally before the match I was, like, if I win, I'm going to go back and practice again after playing her. I knew that before the match that I was going to do that probably or want to do that.

Q. One follow-up to your answer about Svitolina, what do you find most challenging about her game? What are your thoughts on her play in general?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I think she's a good all-court player. She can do pretty much everything. She's really solid from the back. When I played her in Auckland, we had a lot of physical points.

Yeah, I think the challenge will be just finding the balance between being aggressive and not letting her dictate, but also not making too many errors. She's a tough opponent, and you know, regardless of whatever form she's in, I think she's always going to be tough to beat.

Q. You've talked a lot about TikTok this week and getting inspiration from TikTok commenters. I'm curious how you balance using platforms like TikTok for fun, inspiration, connecting with your fans, while protecting yourself from negativity that exists on those platforms.

COCO GAUFF: It just depends on the platform. Twitter I'm really not on. I only search one time after a match to see what people thought of my outfit (laughing). Oh, and then I did search also to see Naomi's because I kept hearing about it, but I didn't see it. Her outfit is great too.

Yeah, usually Twitter I'm not on as much. Instagram, I'll be on and give myself, like, 24 hours. I'll be on my Instagram until maybe end of tomorrow, and then I'll not be on it. Well, on my main account. I do have burners so then I don't see any of the tennis stuff.

TikTok I'm on most of the time, but I also do have a burner, so I don't see any tennis. I'm on social media all the time. It's just whether I'm on my actual account or not. But Twitter is the only one that I'm not on at all because even with the burner, I don't know, the phone hears me speak, and I don't know. My name comes up. I don't know if that's a real thing, but I believe in it.

Q. Were you worried that people didn't like the outfit, or you were just wondering what they thought?

COCO GAUFF: Because I got off court, and like, three players came up to me and was, like, Oh, I love your outfit, 12 out of 10. Yeah, Asia Muhammad was one of them. I thought it was great, but I didn't -- so I was like, Oh, maybe let's see what people thought too. So then I saw that.

I don't know. It's like a thing in the slams. People are always guessing to see. I think there's a couple of players that people are guessing to see what they wear. I think it's me, Naomi, and Marta Kostyuk. I think we're the three players that people are always looking to see. Obviously when Serena was playing, everyone was looking to see what she would wear.

I don't know. We did change the US Open outfit. We had something, and I didn't like it, so we had to scrap it and put something else. So I think we did great with this one.

Q. I have a real question too. I know you mentioned the serve, but were you able to identify kind of in that match or in practice afterward what was going wrong or kind of not up to your usual standard?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I felt like my toss was too far in front, and I think also when you are playing -- I think I didn't serve as fast as I normally did in some serves. I think I was between the 110s and 115s. My last match I was getting almost every serve 120.

I think really the mentality. If I don't have an aggressive mindset, everything kind of goes all over the place. I think in the future I just need to serve more aggressively because I think I was playing her.

I have the thing of just get it in because I knew she wasn't going to hurt me off the return. Sometimes I think I even serve better against better returners because you know you have to bring your A game.

I think today I think my toss was too far in front and too low, so I was missing a lot of first and second serves.

Q. Iva Jovic had a good second match. I don't know if you know too much about it given the timing. She spoke really highly of you and the other Americans and the way you've been in the locker room. As someone who had a wild card or played here very young yourself, just wonder what you made of her tournament and what advice you would give to someone in her position?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I watched her third set because I was just waiting for my match, the time to come on. I saw her after the match, and I just told her, like, You played a great match, and you have a lot to be proud of. Then I told her to have fun in the doubles.

Obviously I don't want to give too much advice because I know that when I was in that position, you had so many people wanting to give you so much advice. So I just wanted her to know that just to be proud of herself because I did see her a little bit after the match.

Like any match, regardless if you are 16 or freaking 28, whatever, she was, like, upset, visibly upset. I waited, and then two hours later I went up to her, and actually literally right after my match I saw her and told her that. I wanted to tell her that, but I wanted to wait until the emotions were down.

Yeah, so I think I just hope that she continues to enjoy it. I didn't know much of her until this year obviously. So I have seen her around. I just try to be nice because I have been in that position. Some people weren't nice; some people were. It was kind of just, like, you know, a lot of people -- some players don't like the young stars coming up because they feel some type of way.

I just try to be, like, nice and welcoming and know that there's people rooting for her in and outside the locker room.

Q. Caroline García posted about the abuse she received after she lost. Obviously it's not a new topic at all. I'm curious as someone who has been on the tour since you were a teenager, when you first encountered people saying stuff like that, what was your reaction?

COCO GAUFF: I didn't see her post, but they briefed me about it. Obviously it's tough. Especially when I was younger, I had no idea that this was a thing. I just thought at first like I was being targeted. Then I realized everybody was getting it.

It's tough because you hear a lot of nasty things, and people, like, talk about your appearance, your family's appearance, and all these things. If you are already struggling with your own mental issues and on top of that you have people digging deeper, it is tough.

I personally just block. I'm someone, I will literally spend 30 minutes blocking all the people. I really don't care. I know it's a little, small thing on Twitter because I was blocking so many people. They are, like, You say anything, and she blocks. Yes, I do (laughing). I don't want to see it, so bye.

So, yeah, it was a thing. People got mad. I was, like, I don't really care. I'm not entitled to read negative things about myself. Just as you're entitled to write that, I'm entitled to block it. It is unfortunate. Obviously the block can only do so much. People make new accounts.

Just for players, I don't know. I just try not to read it as much or take it too personal, but it is getting to the point where, you know, I know that a lot of tournaments are trying to step in and have different AI things. I hope as technology increases, that can help.

It is tough, and you could be having a good day, and then somebody will literally tell you, Oh, go kill yourself. You're, like, Okay, thanks.

I really hope that players just continue to not look at it and especially Caroline. She's a super nice girl. It sucks, but I hope people -- I mean, I always say people can be more mindful and be kinder, but you know, millions of people have said that, and only a few listen. Hopefully the AI stuff can help in the future.

Q. What do you use your burner accounts for?

COCO GAUFF: Literally just I play this game on Roblox called Dress to Impress, so literally just to look up how to get all the cool codes and stuff to make nice outfits (laughing).