Coco Gauff looks to bounce back at US Open: “If you defend, that means you won something before”

World No. 2 Coco Gauff discussed her new perspective as she returns to the US Open as the defending champion. The 20-year-old tennis player will play her first match against Varvara Gracheva on Monday at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, aiming to defend her only Grand Slam title so far.

The American reached the semifinals at the Australian Open and the French Open, but at Wimbledon, she 'only' made it to the Round of 16, a result surely below Gauff's expectations.

A year ago, Gauff arrived at Flushing Meadows with the titles from the WTA 500 DC Open and WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open, won in the previous weeks, and full of confidence. However, this year her current form is quite different, with early defeats at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open. She managed only one win and suffered a significant drop in ranking points, causing her to fall one spot in the rankings, now sitting third behind Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.

“Yeah, it's a new year for a new opportunity. Really excited to be back here and have a great tournament,” Coco Gauff said in her first press conference at Flushing Meadows. "Obviously, coming in as defending champion is a little bit of pressure, but also more of a privilege, because as my new motto is: If you defend, that means you won something before. I'm excited to be back here and hopefully have a good two weeks."

"Obviously I wanted to go into Cincinnati and win, but I had more realistic things in my head just coming from [the] Olympics and, you know, switching surfaces so fast,” the American added. “So really, the main focus was trying to be as ready as possible for here, which I feel like was a blessing in disguise. I lost so early because I was able to actually train, which I hadn't been able to. I do my best results when I come off a training block.”

In that sense, Gauff mentioned that the training sessions in the days leading up to the US Open have been fruitful and that she feels in better shape than in the previous weeks of the hardcourt swing.

“I was able to train for a good week and a half and obviously still have a couple more days to do that. The last couple of practices have gone really well, which before, like, during Cincinnati, I wasn't having great practices, in Toronto, I wasn't having great practices.

“Here I'm having great practices, which, you know, doesn't mean I'm going to go out on the match and play great, but it does give you more confidence when you're actually practising great the week before a tournament, yeah.”