Coco Gauff on Serena Williams: "Don't really speak that much, I haven't seen her in person since US Open"
Coco Gauff has disclosed that she hasn't been getting any advice from Serena Williams and that the two haven't been in touch since the latter walked away from the sport last year.
Gauff has spoken highly of Williams since she made her mark on the WTA tour by qualifying for the Wimbledon Championships as a 15-year-old in 2019. She even confessed to only watching her compatriot's matches until she was eight years old.
When Williams announced her decision to "evolve" away from tennis last year, Gauff praised the 23-time Grand Slam winner for her legacy. With many similarities between the two and with fans backing her to follow in Williams' footsteps and achieve tennis stardom, Gauff is regularly quizzed about the 41-year-old.
Asked if she was getting any advice from the now-retired Williams at a press conference ahead of her 2023 BNP Paribas Open campaign, Gauff stated that they haven't been in touch. In fact, the last time they saw each other was at the US Open last year, the tournament where Williams was last seen in action.
"I don't really speak to Serena that much unless I see her in person. [We're] not really like in contact on messaging or phone calls or anything like that. I haven't seen her in person since US Open, so yeah I haven't gotten anything [advice] from her," she stated.
"She's just a tennis player" - Coco Gauff on the catch-22 situation with Iga Swiatek
Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek have faced each other six times on the tour, first locking horns at the Italian Open in 2021. They most recently faced off at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where Swiatek, as she did the previous five times, emerged victorious in straight sets.
Gauff, however, isn't giving any weightage to their head-to-head record and hopes to dominate the tour like the World No. 1 one day.
Speaking at a pre-tournament press conference at Indian Wells, she said:
"Obviously she [Iga Swiatek] is doing really well but no one looks at her like some impossible goal. I mean, she's just a tennis player. I am not trying to downplay her achievements, she's beaten me a lot of times."
The 18-year-old added:
"But I feel like you can't look at the game that way. This is a person that's excelling at the level right now, but you can't look at it I guess in a far way because you want that to be you one day."