"It really means absolutely nothing, I don't care": Coco Gauff gives brutal assessment about being American No.1
WTA
Coco Gauff crashed out of the 2025 Indian Wells Open overnight being defeated by Belinda Bencic who was utterly heroic in her best win since becoming a mother. But before the tie, Gauff offered up some thoughts about being American No.1.
Gauff always faces stiff competition with Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro and at one point Danielle Collins all breathing down her neck. But she offered a pretty blunt and brutal assessment about being American No.1.
She admitted that it doesn't mean anything to her and that the goal is to be World No.1 instead of American No.1. For Gauff, it is in fact all about legacy over rankings. She said that Grand Slam wins ultimately come first over the goal of being American No.1.
“Honestly, it never meant anything to me. I just feel like all the people say it online. And for me, it really means absolutely nothing. I don't like to look at it. I don't care. The reason it means nothing is because of the goal, obviously, is to be number one, period,” she said in an interview with Roland Garros.
“I've never been a rankings girl. Really, I want to just win Grand Slams. My dad always said, ‘the number, the ranking will come with the Slams’. So I think for me, I'm looking more at winning Slams. And if I win a Slam this year and don't become number one, I will be satisfied. I’ll be more satisfied than if I became number one and didn't win a Slam."
As she moves onto Miami, clay will soon be around the corner and she said that she believes she can be a Roland Garros champion one day.
“I do think I am a good player on clay. And I know that if I want to win that tournament, I have to probably beat her (Iga Swiatek), most likely."
“So that would be a goal to win this tournament just because I did make the final. So I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business there. And yeah, she's definitely the number one person to beat when it comes to playing at Roland-Garros."
BIG TIME BENCIC 👏@BelindaBencic moves into the quarterfinals after battling her way back to defeat Gauff 3-6, 6-3, 6-4!
— wta (@WTA) March 12, 2025
#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/PILg8t7rv0
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