Monday, March 10, 2025

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/M. Sakkari

7-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Coco, a rematch of the big semifinal last year. This time you got the win. How did you do that?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, it was a bit tricky conditions. I think we were both struggling a little bit with finding the rhythm, and I was just trying to stay solid on my end of the court.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I know it's never fun to talk about some trouble with the serve in the last two matches. A new routine you're doing? What's going on with that?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, like I said, I have been in the process of changing that, so just trying to continue with that. It's tough, trying to learn a new motion.

Q. You were talking about the tricky conditions. What about it was tricky today? Also, picking up on something you were talking about the other day about the difference between the Middle East and these courts, what would be your ideal court for your game that you could design, the court where you would always play on?

COCO GAUFF: I don't really know, because sometimes I've done good on faster conditions and sometimes I do well on slower. I mean, typically I would say I do well slower, but I don't know. It's pretty slow here.

Yeah, I guess Middle East, it was kind of slow, but with the balls it was extra, like they weren't getting a lot of bounce, and here it gets a lot of bounce on them so that does help. It's just hard to hit a winner and kinda hit through your serves here. Sometimes you hit a good shot and you think it's a great shot and your opponent is there. I think it's just kind of testing the patience out here.

Q. And the conditions today? What was tricky?

COCO GAUFF: Just windy, swirly in the stadium. It was my first match on this Stadium 1. It was kind of swirly a little bit. Sometimes when the balls were a bit slower, I felt I was not getting up to them quick enough. Especially on the backhand side towards the end of the first set, I missed a couple of backhands that I feel like I normally could do better on. I think it's just getting used to that.

Q. With all respect, I think many of your opponents try to attack your forehand side. Your second-round opponent, Moyuka, she also told me that kind of strategies. During the game, the match, she felt like if she hits, she would be trapped if she keeps attacking your forehand side and she would be punished. So do you feel like you use that kind of strategies or something like that?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, obviously that's the game plan against me, and I would say since the end of last year I have been playing more aggressively on that side, so I think people just don't feel comfortable necessarily just putting a ball there. If I get a neutral ball, especially on that end of the court. On these courts I try to be aggressive with it.

Yeah, I think that's kind of the goal. So, yeah, I'm glad to kind of hear my opponent felt trapped on that (smiling.) But, yeah, especially on these courts, it's so slow, so they have to hit a really good shot for me to not be somewhat aggressive on it.

So I have just been working on that, and that was kind of the goal, like, today. And eventually people attack one and you kind of get used to it at this point.

Yeah, I just feel like whenever it's anything neutral or anything I can get a front foot on, I'm kind of going for it.

Q. All of us have great days in the office and then not so great days in the office, and we tend to grade ourselves. You have been grading your matches. If you could just look back on your great career, what was the A-plus-plus matches you played and the not-so-great?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, there is one I played against Kalinina in San Diego. I think that was 0-1 or 0-0 match. I think that was really great tennis for me. I just felt like whatever I did was gold.

I mean, there has been other matches. Sometimes you win, like, I guess the defining of great is kind of result, but for example my match in Riyadh, I thought I played a really, it was a high-quality, really great match regardless if I would have won or lost that match, and maybe a match like US Open final, I still felt like that was not a great match for me.

It's kind of weird how we base ourselves sometimes on results. There have times where I feel like I played well like maybe against Krejcikova in Riyadh, I felt I was playing well and she was just better than me that day.

Yeah, it's tennis. It's ups and downs. Sometimes you lose matches that you probably could have won, and you win matches that you definitely shouldn't have won. At the end of the day, you'll hopefully win more of those matches than lose.

Q. Most people would define success as a win. Can you lose and feel successful?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah. I mean, I guess it depends how you lose. If you feel like you have had a focus on the process of what you are working on, for me, if I feel like I did the things that we were working on in practice and the opponent was just better, then it's, like, okay that was a step forward.

But, yeah, I mean, obviously never feels great losing, so I guess it's for me harder to find the positives in the loss. I have been trying to do more of that lately.

Q. I know you probably have been asked this one before, but I wanted to get your thoughts on Madison's play of late and specifically her Aussie Open title. How did you process that? Did you personally find it inspiring, given kind of the changes that occurred? She had to change some of the elements of her game and how it turned out for her.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, definitely inspiring just because I'm in that process, and the fact that she committed to it maybe what people consider later in her career.

You know, I wasn't surprised by her winning. I think she's one of those players you play and she's just so good and she has the capability of beating anyone on any given day, and she certainly proved that in the past and certainly proved that in Australia.

It's great to see her finding her -- I don't even want to say finding her game, because she's been playing great tennis for so long, but I guess finally having the trophy that she deserves with the level of her game, she definitely has one of the highest levels on tour.

It's good to see, like, she get a slam and she deserved it. She just looks a lot happier lately. I think that was kind of the biggest change more than anything technically in her game. I think she just gives more positive -- not that she's ever negative, but I feel like I can feel energy off of people, and when I'm around her, she seems a bit happier. Even before winning Australia, to me she felt like she was happier around the locker room and things like that.

I usually feel when players are in that mindset they tend to do better. So it's good to see her, like, win and also be kind of happy while doing it.