MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 20, 2025

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/S. Kenin

6-0, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You said you didn't expect it to be obviously a 47-minute match. What was your mindset? When we spoke to you the other day, you said people are, What's wrong? Is something wrong? You said that you weren't worried, everything was fine. But did you feel like you had some kind of point to prove today?

COCO GAUFF: No, because I have learned that people create their storylines just to make it better. So, yeah, for me personally, I know where I personally stand in my game.

Yes, it's not been up to my standards, but at the same time, like, you know, we are just March and our season ends in November. There is a lot of time to improve.

Today I wasn't going in with that in my mind. It just happened to be a great day for me.

Q. I hate to bring drama up, but there is a great deal of drama in the sport right now. Can you just give us your thoughts on this lawsuit by the PTPA? And what would your wish be if you could change something about the tours as they are following these lawsuits?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah. I honestly don't have a lot of information on that whole thing, to be honest with you. I saw a post about it. I found out about it when everybody else did.

I don't have any information on it that I can share, but, you know, I'm all for making the sport better and trying to make it better. But I don't know the details of it, to be completely honest. I just saw it on Instagram two days ago and didn't really look into it.

Q. (Off mic.)

COCO GAUFF: I mean, for me I guess the biggest thing would be not equity but more of a percentage of the revenue and prize money. Obviously for the women's side of things, making as many tournaments as we can equal to the men when it comes to prize money terms.

But, I mean, there is a whole other thing, just the visibility and things like that that I think we can also improve on. I guess on that side of things, that would be the biggest thing.

I also can't sit here and complain. Like, I'm a professional athlete. I get paid pretty well to do what I love. You know, the amount of work is definitely less than the award, or the amount of work isn't equal to the reward obviously. I'm an athlete. There are people who do much harder things in this world.

Yeah, I mean, if we want to compare it to other sports, of course, but if you want to compare to other things in life, I'm not going to sit here and complain.

Q. You have played her a lot, usually first rounds of big tournaments, 2-2, tough matches generally. Can you describe what went on out there? Do you think that she was ill or off her game or you were just so on your game?

COCO GAUFF: I don't think she was sick or anything. Not that I noticed.

Yeah, I mean, I was definitely playing well today, and maybe she wasn't playing her peak great tennis. I don't think anyone who is playing their best tennis will have that scoreline today, so I'm not going to sit here and say she played her best tennis.

I think it was a combination of me playing really well, it was really great tennis from me, and maybe her not playing as well.

Q. After the first set, I noticed you were practicing your serves. Have you done that before?

COCO GAUFF: Oh, yeah, I have always done that. That's nothing new. Every time there is a bathroom break or medical, I usually do that, just because those things can go eight, nine minutes without hitting a ball, which doesn't seem long but it feels long out there.

Sometimes I'm just bored. I don't know what else to do.

Q. (Off mic.)

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I knew that was kind of going to happen. Today was only two doubles, so I'll take it (smiling).

Q. You mentioned the word "standard" earlier, and I'm wondering what you kind of do and have done in your career to develop such a thing as your standard. Do you look back on old matches where you feel like you performed very well? Do you take a glance at your trophy cabinet? What you do to develop the Coco Gauff standard?

COCO GAUFF: I honestly am not taking a look at the trophy cabinet. I am a good person of short-term memory when it comes to wins and losses. I don't really dwell on a win too long, which is something I actually should do at least at the end of the year, but I'm very much a future mindset-driven person, which I think is a great thing, but also sometimes you can be too focused on the future where you forget to be present.

I think it's a thing you have to find balance on, and as I go through my career, I continue trying to find that balance. But for me, I think it's just trying to do the right things in practice and also trying to do those things in the match. Obviously I have things that I know work.

But sometimes when you get to top level, like, you have to expand out of that. We all have our favorite patterns and favorite plays, and we all kind of know that of one another. But what makes the difference in sometimes that day is you doing something your opponent didn't expect from that point. I think it's just continuing to branch outside the box.

Q. Taylor Fritz often talks about when you win a first set 6-Love it's a curse. Do you ever feel there is any kind of nerves or maybe just, like, it can all go downhill from here, that kind of thing, in the first game?

COCO GAUFF: I wasn't thinking about that today, but after the match I did think about it. I did have a little bit of nerves, and only the first game in the second set, because I feel like I want to hold serve, and sometimes that momentum can easily change.

I think if you start that game holding serve, it's much different if she comes out and she's serving and you lose that game. I feel if you go out and you hold serve, it's a big difference. At 5-0, I really wanted the 6-0, so I was a little bit nervous that game too (smiling).