Coco Gauff continues to grow up in front of our eyes. The latest reminder of that was her Sunday win over rising Czech star Linda Noskova in Indian Wells, a rare match in which Gauff was the older of the two competitors.
The match was played on the eve of the American's 19th birthday, which she will hope to celebrate on court Monday with a doubles victory alongside compatriot Jessica Pegula. After Gauff's 6-4, 6-3 singles triumph against Noskova, she reflected on her life as she marks the passage of another year in the spotlight.
"I'm for sure living my dream," she said in a press conference after reaching the BNP Paribas Open third round for the third straight year. "I guess the on-court part is glamorous in a way. Off-court, I always tell people my life is boring. That's part of the reason why I've never done any, I guess, filming or any of that, like behind-the-scenes stuff. I literally just don't leave my room sometimes.
"The tennis part, I guess online and that persona, yeah, I'm living the dream, but I guess that's my dream. Like, I don't want to be outside—I guess that's a phrase, I don't know if you guys heard—but be outside all the time," she continued, dropping some Gen Z lingo.
"I enjoy this kind of balance of being extroverted in certain situations and introverted in certain situations. There is no other life that I would want other than mine right now."
Long tipped for greatness, Gauff has been a superstar since she burst onto the professional tennis scene with her fourth-round run at Wimbledon in 2019, when she was 15. Now a fixture in the WTA's Top 10 and a three-time tour-level champion, the 2022 Roland Garros finalist shared one way in which she's evolved since then.
"If you look at my past matches from 15 and now, I would say I definitely was more animated then. Now I feel like I've almost got a little bit of [my brother's] persona where, you know, I'm sometimes pumped up," she said, explaining how she's tried to emulate her 15-year-old sibling Codey's "low-key persona" on the court. "Not to say anything bad about my brother, but he knows he's good at what he does. I feel like that's something that I needed to, I guess, learn a little bit from."
Another change: No longer the new kid on the block, Gauff is now taking on fresh rising stars from her position as a relative veteran of the pro game. Discussing her Indian Wells match against Noskova, she admitted to feeling the weight of that transition.
"I felt a little pressure coming into today's match, to be honest with you, because of the age thing, which I've never thought about that in the past," she said. "I played Robin [Montgomery] last year too and it was the same situation. I think because my age has been such a topic in conversation for so long, playing someone younger than me, you do feel a little pressure.
"But now that I'm getting older, like, I've got to get used to it," she added with a smile. Gauff won both of those matches in straight sets.
As she turns 19, Gauff still receives plenty of guidance from her support system, which includes her parents, her team and friends on the WTA Tour. One key confidante is her doubles partner, world No. 3 Pegula.
"She's like one of the nicest people ever," Gauff said of the 29-year-old, with the pair forming the No. 2-seeded doubles team in the desert. "She's older than me. You know, she deals with all my antics when I try and say certain things.
"In a way, she's like my on-tour older sister. Playing with her on the court, she's always positive and telling me, 'You're good, go for your shots, keep doing that.' Off the court, I really look to her as a friend and someone that I enjoy spending time with.
"She doesn't know there's just a lot of times I'll just wait around to see what she's doing just so I can talk to her longer, because I really enjoy being around her. I'm grateful that I can be our doubles partner, and we have created that relationship."
Pegula, who also advanced to the Indians Wells singles third round on Sunday, was in the press room an hour before Gauff. The doubles pair has already reached the Australian Open semifinals this year and won the Dubai title, putting them in first place in the WTA Finals Race.
Asked about her relationship with Gauff, Pegula's response was fit for a birthday greeting card.
"I love Coco. She's great. I love her team and her family," she began. "We have spent a lot of time together on the road and make it entertaining. She's fun to play with, and she's so athletic and dynamic and has all these starlike qualities for someone so young. I think she's very mature for her age and very well-spoken.
"I think she has a really good head on her shoulders. It's definitely not life or death with her for tennis. I think she has a good balance of everything else with her family off the court. She likes to have fun with everything she does off the court. But I think she's definitely really close with her family, which I think keeps her very grounded and with her siblings and stuff like that.
"Then she's kind of the star on the court. So it's cool to see how she's balanced it a lot at such a young age. I would say probably credit to her parents for helping her with that.
"She's just a fun personality, and she's got such a long, long career ahead of her. Just to see what she's done at such a young age is pretty crazy."
Like Pegula, we're all excited to see what Gauff has in store next.
