CHINA OPEN

October 2, 2025

Coco Gauff

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/E. Lys

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Coco, congratulations. I bet you're happy to get this one done in straight sets.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I'm really happy to get through today. Eva is a great player. I thought she moved really well.

But yeah, I'm happy to get through in straight sets today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How would you characterize your experience so far at China Open in terms of the matches, what you've learned, how you've played to get yourself to the semifinal? What is the story so far of the tournament for you?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, it's been a lot of fight I think, for sure. Obviously against Leylah, I played her three times. This is for sure the best time I played her. She was playing great tennis. I had to get through that barely. Then the same with Belinda. Honestly in the tiebreak I got a little bit lucky hitting a let cord on one of those points.

Just kind of fighting and staying into the match. Today, yeah, I had to fight, but I was able to close it out on my serve, which is important for me I think for the long run.

Q. About the letter that the top 10 are sending to the Grand Slams, you said you weren't part of that last conversation.

COCO GAUFF: Yeah.

Q. More generally, why did you personally add your name to the first letter as well as the second letter?

COCO GAUFF: No, I think for me personally, I think for the long run of our sport, the whole ecosystem, I think it's really important. As we know in this sport, the Grand Slams are generating the most revenue, at least the stats and the percentages they gave me, when you look at the percentage of that revenue going to prize money, it is not the same as the WTA and ATP, even though they're generating less revenue than the slams.

I think it's important for the whole ecosystem of the sport. Sometimes people are focused on just the prize money. We're not talking about just raising the prize money for the champion, but trickling all the way down to quallies.

We kind of want them to invest more in the tour as a whole, not only when it comes to prize money, but the well-being of players and just trickling that down, all the way down to the lower-ranked players as well. Our 200th best player, 300th best player are struggling to make ends meet. In other leagues, it's not that common, especially with the revenue that tennis is generating.

I think for me it was important for the long run of the sport, I don't know if it will happen in my career lifetime in this sport, where it reaches that. I want to leave the sport better than I found it. Obviously, all the top-10 players agree. I think this is the first time on the tour we've gotten both the top 10 on men and women to sign something and agree to something. I think it's a big step.

Yeah, I know they're having conversations. Hopefully we can reach a solution in the near future.

Q. Have you seen Napheesa Collier's video?

COCO GAUFF: Yes.

Q. What was your reaction to that? We've seen it in women's soccer, as well, more and more, particularly in women's sports, having to advocate for yourself. Also from your position of being a star of the sport, someone with good leverage, how do you navigate that line of in her situation really kind of calling out a league versus working quietly to try to effect change?

COCO GAUFF: I know that they've been doing a lot behind the scenes, the WNBA girls, specifically her. I met her or saw her at Unrivaled. I didn't talk to her anything about that. Agent at the time talked a little bit to her husband about some of the things.

I know they both have been working behind the scenes. I know a lot of the players in the league have found some real issues with it. I think for me it was a pretty brave statement.

I think really why she did that is because she wasn't being heard behind the scenes. Unfortunately sometimes people don't like bad look on them. Sometimes you have to make that move.

When it comes to my positioning and our conversations, not as similar, but kind of, our conversation, we worked quietly before this letter came out, at least on the women's side of things with the players council.

That letter really wasn't supposed to get leaked. We all signed it knowing it probably would be. Then public pressure had applied.

I mean, obviously I think for me, I would like things to be resolved not in a whole public manner because I think it's better for the players not to have to answer this, also for them as well. It's the reality of our world. Every big change that you want, sometimes public pressure is needed.

But yeah, as much as I would like for this to be resolved privately, I hope it will never get to the point where one of us have to come out and do that. I don't think the slams want that to happen either. They have been working with us behind the scenes on finding a solution, but I don't know when it's going to happen.

Q. Looking ahead, what do you think, now that you're into the business end of the tournament, that you need to really focus on and lock down on for potentially two more matches? In your first answer you said the word 'fight' a lot as what characterized your tournament so far. You've developed that reputation on the tour. Can you see that reputation have competitive impact? Do you feel like players go into that match maybe knowing your fighting qualities and ability to pull these matches out?

COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I mean, these next two matches, obviously the further you go, the harder it's going to get. In my next round I have two quality opponents. It's going to be a fight for that.

I mean, maybe. I don't know. I hope so. I definitely think I've built or have a lot of matches that has built that reputation for myself. I can't quite know what my opponent is thinking.

I definitely know on the physical side of things a lot of people tonight want to go the distance with me. Yeah, I definitely think maybe some opponents think about that. But I don't think everybody's thinking that when they're on the court.