Coco Gauff Press Conference | Australian Open 2024 Quarterfinal

Coco Gauff’s press conference following her win against Marta Kostyuk in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2024.

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Welcome to the official Australian Open TV YouTube channel. The Australian Open 2024 main draw runs from 14-28 January in Melbourne. The tournament takes place for the 112th time and is the first Grand Slam of the year. Novak Djokovic is the men’s singles reigning champion and Aryna Sabalenka is the women’s singles reigning champion. The tournament takes place on 25 hard courts, including Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and John Cain Arena. Look out for highlights, press conferences, memorable moments and much more!

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All right we’ll get started Coco um just give us your Reflections on the match and and getting through to the semi-finals here in Melbourne yeah it was a fight I think today was definitely like a c game um so I didn’t play my best tennis but um really proud that I

Was able to get through today’s match and hopefully I got the bad match out the way and I can play even better okay good luck yeah maybe uh congratulations coko on your first semifinals at US Open um and thank you for sharing that routine that you have before the game what are the

Routines you got and is there a particular one here in Melbourne that you would like to share with us um I mean the only thing I’ve been doing consistently is playing card games every night with my parents um done that every day um pre-match just eat and listen to

Music um yeah that’s about the only I’m not a superstitious person I don’t have a a complete ritual I just go with the flow and go with the feeling okay Matt you mentioned the other day um that on your shoes is the coordinates of the public courts where you started playing

In Florida you also went to France as a young kid I was just curious with all the all theems and stuff in Florida what was it that made you want to go out go to France and play people from train with people from Europe Patrick M I mean he was coaching

Serena Williams at the time and um she was my idol and it wasn’t really a decision like I got invited over there when I was 10 so it wasn’t like I made the decision um it was just you know my parents they got presented this great

Opportunity to go for a week and all expenses paid for I’d never left the country um and yeah and then went to Paris for a week and we did this process called champ seed and it was like it didn’t feel like if was not an

Auditioning but I guess in a way and he just picked the best of the best to kind of help fund uh our careers essentially um there’s a couple other players that came out of that um at the top of my head hogar room is one of them um and uh

The frova sisters and other so um that program kind of just exposed me to different ways to play um probably would have never had red clay experience if it wasn’t going there um and then with Florida um I only was at Academy it was

Not even a big one but it was called Sly black a tennis academy and um he actually is in Thailand now but he was my childhood coach um and then I went to gerro logo Tennis Academy um another small Academy so I never did like the bigm outside of um going to

Marasu maybe six to eight weeks out the year um I didn’t want to commit or my parents didn’t want to commit me to like spending full time there because I still had a family at home and friends at home so they didn’t want to disrupt my life

Um which I think was the best decision okay we go ERS and then James UR congratulations coko um when you were 5-1 down in in the first set what went through your mind and at what point did you feel like you were able to take control of the match yeah I was playing

Not great um I was just missing everything on both wings and not serving well and uh I was just trying to win one extra game um yeah that was really the one thing I was just like let me make it competitive obviously sometimes when you’re down 5-1 you’re not expecting to

Win the set but um you know I believe every point game matters and eventually I the score started to get closer and yeah then I was back on serve and yeah I was just fighting as much as possible uh I I know going in playing her it’s a

Tough match she’s pretty athletic and um yeah we kind of play similar I think today she was just more offensive which uh I wish I was taking the offense from the beginning okay James cooko I know you’ve said before with regards to the WTA in Saudi Arabia that you wouldn’t

Want to say anything because it’s you know rumors and not set in stone yeah do you hope and think that you the players will have the opportunity to privately maybe have input on that decision before it is set in stone because it feels like once the decision’s made then to an

Extent what what’s said publicly doesn’t necessar yeah I think the WTA they I’ve noticed probably Cancun they’re trying to take more steps of communicating with the players about certain decisions and part of the reason why they didn’t go to Saudi um last year for the finals was uh

They didn’t have time to they didn’t want to they wanted to make sure the messaging was correct and I feel like if we go there um I feel like we have the opportunity to make change and hopefully you know I know the situation there isn’t great and um definitely don’t

Support the situation there but I hope that if we do decide to go there I hope that um we’re able to make change there and improve the quality there and engage in the local communities and make a difference um yeah and I don’t there hasn’t been a decision made about Saudi

And so I I can’t really speak much of that but I will say that um they are trying to at least communicate with the players more I don’t know if we have like you know a final say or decision making but at least uh we’re getting in

The conversations and I I do appreciate the um effort to change and include us more so we do know more what’s going on because at the end of the day the WT was founded by players so um yeah right we go the guy in the purple behind yeah no

No down you got you right there yes yes if you um BR Gilbert during your us siph run last year you praised your problem solving ability during matches when you were able to sort of fight your way back in how important was that today in that first set yeah it was really important

And you know today was frustrating because I knew how I needed to play I just couldn’t execute um and then eventually I was able to find it which is what I’m proud of um but yeah problem solving is tennis um every you know you could play someone uh today and and

Maybe a week later they’ll play you completely different so um it’s a part of it at the end of the day you’re given a scouting report but you have to go with feeling and try your best to win um so that’s what I did today can we go Courtney and Simon Courtney Coco

Congrats um just you mentioned seame did you have a sense of it like when you were warming up that something was off or was it just like once the match started it it it was hard to find you know what you wanted to do or be able to

Execute I guess yeah um no I mean when I warmed up in the pre-match like earlier this morning I was hitting good um and I was like serving good so I actually felt really good and then when I went on Court and then I had two break points in

The first game so I still you know felt good and then I don’t know where it all like happened to be honest um so yeah it wasn’t something that I felt this morning or even in the warmup or even in the like 5 minute warm up before U it

Just kind of just happened I felt like I was going for shots that I normally make and was missing and missing by like a lot not even close um so I think that was like frustrating um but I’m like like again I’m just glad I was able to

Get through today there go Simon and then the guy up in the back corner yes if I’m not to you I’ll get to you Simon Okay your mom caught the ball at one stage I was just wondering if you saw it and if she’s still

Celebrating um I did not see it but I I heard the I heard somebody in the crowd say mom caught it or something so I think I like got the gist of what had happened um and then I saw the video of her celebrating I was like it wasn’t

That hard of a ball to catch but um you know celebrate your little wins so uh yeah she was really happy with that and iess I mean I’m sure you guys seen from usop video she likes to celebrate in crazy ways so is if it’s just catching a

Ball I mean whatever makes makes her happy I mean her son is a catcher so she should make that right we go the guy the back and then with the glasses and then yeah yeah kako um since your US Open wi you’ve gone from being the hunter to the

Hunted have you noticed any change in that regard and have you sort of approached you know matches differently or has it just been same old um no I don’t really approach matches differently um but yeah there’s definitely a change and just the energy I mean you know you do feel like you’re

The one to be and you know I feel like people step on court and they play more free and and want to play not want to play everybody wants to play their best games every day but play their best games because there’s no pressure and yeah I definitely feel a little change

Um but also at the same time like not really cuz when I was young like nobody wanted to lose to like a 15-year-old so I felt like people played really hard too um but yeah definitely um I mean I remember being in that position too when

I was Underdog and you just play free so um yeah it’s always I think it’s a quotes like it’s not easy to get to top but easier to get to the top but harder to stay there and and the goal is to stay here as long as possible and and

Keep going up upwards I mean I’m not at the top but I’m up there okay this gentleman here and then J yeah uh there there’s been talking the last year or so about merging the WTA and the ATP I was wondering where you stand on that and do

You think it would maybe be a good way of um boosting um prize money in the women’s draws for non-r slam tournaments yeah I definitely think that I mean it would help women ESP the women’s side of the game um I find that when I’m at combined events I just feel like the

Energy amongst the crowd is better um and for most of the events it’s equal prize money when they’re combined so yeah it definitely will help our side of the game um yeah and I just feel like the I generally enjoy um when both wom men and women are at the same

Tournaments just because I also have friends on the guy side so not even like MoneyWise it would just be um more fun for me as a player around the grounds but um yeah I definitely think it would help us a lot and hopefully one day it could be a possibility okay we’ll do

Three more Jill and then this gentleman here and then this lady here okay Jill so just two questions wondering if you read winning ugly and then two if you can talk about um barbora or Arena yeah I bought a copy but I didn’t read

It uh so maybe I should add it to my reading list um yeah I did buy one and I didn’t when like my mom actually got it for me um when we were in talks of just possibly working with Brad and she was like you need to read this and she read

It and I didn’t read it and but you know I feel like I got the real version so I don’t need a book um but maybe it could help I’ll probably do it just to surprise him um and yeah for barbora I haven’t played her in a long time I

Believe I can’t remember the last time but it’s been a while um she’s obviously been in this position before and I think she’s a really smart player we always see her like watching matches live and um paying attention and I think that she’s probably one one of the smartest

Players in tour and when she’s on she’s a tough player to beat and obviously Arena um it’s always a tough match with her I think she’s playing really well this tournament um and yeah obviously that US Open final was uh tough and yeah I think either way it’s going to be a

Tough match I think these are the later stages of the Grand Slam and um for both of them I think that they’re in good form you three from three from Grand Slam semi-finals does that give you confidence heading into this heading into these big matches um yeah I mean I

Definitely think being in the semis um a couple times before definitely doesn’t make it I mean it’s obviously a big achievement and a big deal but I think just when you have the experience you don’t feel like it’s your last time ever reaching this you want to

Like play with it play like it’s your last time I guess because you don’t want to take advantage of the moment but also um just feel like you can do it again so yeah I think I mean I didn’t even know that was the record um so hopefully I

Can make it four for four um and if not um I guess I’ll have to go back to drawing board but it does give me confidence knowing that at least in that stage of a grand slam that my nerves are usually settled so hopefully I can go

Out there and be settled okay last one here and I forgive a slightly simple question but I just want to get in your words what are in your opinion your super strengths as a player yeah I think for me um definitely my movement um and

When my serve is on I think my serve is a big weapon for me and same with returns it didn’t turn that well today but usually I do well with that and I think just my mental um strength I think that’s gotten me through a lot of

Matches and I feel like mentally I’m one of the strongest out there and I try my best to reset after each point so yeah I think those are my strengths um that I can think of right off the top of my head all right thank you very much thank You