AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 15, 2025

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/J. Burrage

6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Coco, a bit of a fight out there tonight. Your thoughts on your second round performance.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, it wasn't my best tennis off the serve. Off the ground, I didn't play too bad. I knew she was going to come in, be aggressive.

The first set she was giving me a little bit more errors. But second set her shots were landing, and she was playing pretty powerful. I was just trying my best to get through it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What happens there when you're down, what was it, 5-3 in the second set, then you just sort of turn it on? Is that self-talk, dinner reservation you need to get to...

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I think it's just, I don't know, one of those adrenaline-type things. Sometimes you're like, Dang, I wish I could do that, have a chance to go up 4-1.

All credit to her, even though I had break points to go up a double break, she served well on them.

The service game at 3-All wasn't the best. I don't regret anything on the return game. She was serving well. I was just trying my best to just get it deep.

Yeah, I think it was just one of those things, just step up my level against her. I knew that there was going to be a moment maybe where she wasn't going to play as well. It's just when that moment would come. I don't know if it was going to be at 5-3 or in the third set.

Q. Playing Leylah next. I was talking to Robin Montgomery, who said that she was practicing with you in the offseason because you were prepping to play Leylah. Through all that prep you did in December, maybe help you getting to play her again?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, I knew that I wanted to play with some lefties in the offseason because I knew it was going to be my first match. I guess I practiced with Robin, and then there was a guy that I practiced with, lefty. Most of the time I have my hitter. He is righty. Unfortunately cannot hit lefty.

Yeah, it was something that I wanted to prep for, just be ready for. I knew United Cup she was going to have -- you know the schedule weeks beforehand. I knew she was going to have a match before she played me. I have to be ready because she will have a chance to work her way into things.

I guess, I don't know. We'll see two days from now if it makes a difference or not. Obviously I did well at United Cup. It's a different match, different story. Anything can happen.

Q. How different did it feel to get that much time to prep for an opponent? Usually you get two days max.

COCO GAUFF: Honestly, we didn't really, like, prep for her the whole offseason. I hit with Robin the week before I was supposed to leave. Yeah, it wasn't something like we completely planned.

It is nice. I guess you feel almost like a regular sport, like NFL or NBA, where you knew who you're playing. I did enjoy that because I knew who my first two opponents were going to be. I knew what to expect.

That's the unique thing about United Cup, that it helps for fans, too, to know they're getting these matchups guaranteed.

Q. With all the experience against Leylah, what do you have to get right?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, obviously serve better. I think just, again, she's going to be aggressive. That's her game. She's a great mover. She's going to hit some great shots. She's a great player. Slam finalist and has great results against top players.

I expect her to play great tennis. I just hope I can do the same.

Q. Of people I know, you might be one of ones who might be concerned potentially with the potential TikTok ban. How much are you following this?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I am following it. Yeah, I mean, I feel like think is the third or fourth time this has happened. This time it's just like, Whatever. If I wake up and it doesn't work, fine. I'm done wasting my time figuring it out.

I see there's a new app called RedNote that a lot of people are migrating over to. So I feel regardless people are going to be fine because people are always going to migrate to another app.

I hope TikTok extends. I think it's a great thing for a lot of small businesses in our country, and a lot of creators make money on it and have the chance to spread stories. Personally, me, a lot of great stories I've heard are from TikTok and connecting with people has been TikTok.

I hope it will stay. Obviously I don't know all the security issues and things like that. As a fan, I hope they are able to extend it.

Q. A favorite TikTok video?

COCO GAUFF: There's like a lot of trends. There's like this pig online, his name is Merlin. He knows how to, like, press buttons so he can talk. It's pretty funny. He's a pretty sassy pig. I will miss Merlin the most (smiling).

Q. You're used to leading things off here. You're off in your time slot maybe the second match, but not so often at night. What is your routine during the day here when you do play at night?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, usually I just go to the gym in the morning at the hotel, do something pretty light. Then just sit in my hotel room. Sometimes if I'm feeling not lazy, I'll go for a walk or something like that. But usually I'll just sit in my hotel room. Today I was just watching tennis and talking to my boyfriend. That's pretty much about it.

I don't really do much on days. Just waiting around.

But yeah, I was excited. I was getting excited to play on Rod Laver. It's one of my favorite places to play on, especially at night. I was really excited to see I got scheduled at night.

Q. What match did you watch?

COCO GAUFF: Who did I watch today? I watched Laura and Qinwen. I watched a little bit of Naomi and Karolina.

Trying to think if there were any men. Yeah, I didn't watch much of the men today. I'll watch the men if one of my friends are playing. Women, I just like to know what's going on, yeah.

Q. About the watching, are you studying these matches at all, or is it more like background noise?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, definitely background noise. I'm always on the app looking at scores. I'm a tennis fan, so I'm just looking at scores. Sometimes if I see if somebody is about to win in a tight scoreline, then I'll turn it on. Definitely not watch the whole match. I don't want to surround my whole day with tennis.

For sure when it's a tight scoreline, I want to see what happens. People talk about those moments, and I can actually know what happened.

Q. Did you see any, either highlights, of the Joao Fonseca/Rublev match? What do you think of Fonseca?

COCO GAUFF: Pretty funny. We were just talking about him upstairs. I first knew of Fonseca two years ago when I won US Open. He won Junior US Open. I took a picture of him. That's when I was like, Who is this kid? He won Junior US Open at 16. Has to be good. So I started following his career from there, his challengers, obviously still leading up to that, and then Next Gen.

I've been on the Fonseca train since early. I wasn't surprised by the result. I didn't watch it because I think it was later, like, in the evening. I wasn't surprised. I kind of called it. I said that he was going to beat Rublev. I didn't think it was going to be straight sets. I thought it was going to be four.

Yeah, he's good. I don't know him at all personally. I've just been a fan of him for at least a year and a half, two years. It's great to see, like, him on the biggest stage performing well. Hopefully he'll stay on his lane, stay in his lane, not listen to the hype and enjoy it. He seems like a great personality, too.

Q. Danielle Collins, you spent time with her at United Cup. She's in an unexpected part of her career. What was it like to be around her? What do you see from her at this stage of her tennis career?

COCO GAUFF: I think for me, being on the team, Danielle was just so fun, brought the best energy. She was sick like the first week. Once that was all cleared up, she brought, like, great energy on the bench.

She's been fun. I will say, I think she's, I don't know, maybe she's more relaxed now. I obviously knew her, just because of Danielle Collins, but I didn't know her well. She always striked me as someone that maybe didn't like to talk as much. When I got to know her, I realized it was quite the opposite.

I think she's a nice person. I always say Danielle is going to be Danielle. There's no one changing her. She doesn't care either. That's something I can respect when someone knows who they are.

On the bench she brought the best energy. She was super nice. Honestly kind of critical in some of those moments, tough moments, in United Cup.

Q. What does 'Danielle being Danielle' mean?

COCO GAUFF: Just being her. Like authentically being herself. I mean, if you know Danielle Collins, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, being authentically Danielle. I have no other way to phrase it. But if you know her, you know.