Coco Gauff was asked Why Sabalenka still playing Miami... Her answer is...

all right we'll get started um just raise your hand if you have a question Coco welcome back to Miami open um it's your home tournament um how are you feeling about being here and also recovering after Indian Worlds the last couple of weeks yeah I'm really happy to be here so close to home I get to stay home actually um so yeah I'm really really excited for this week it's good to be back um in Florida and hopefully I can have a good week here hey Coco Adam Ross Florida tennis first welcome to Miami and uh know this is your your hometown um there was a big event yesterday um pompe I hope it's okay I hope it's okay to talk about um what that meant to you I know your folks were there and uh there a dedication of some courts and can you talk a little bit about that and also I got to ask you about your sneakers aren't your sneakers also related to that in some way yeah um yeah so uh yesterday we got to uh really unveil the refurbishing of uh the public courts that I grew up on at pompe Park which is a park I grew up on and it was part of us or US op Legacy initiative that they started um last year after I won the US Open title so um they're committing $3 million to renovate courts across the country and in in Pompei Park which is in Del Beach was the first of that project which is super exciting and I'm super thankful for USA for uh letting that be the first place and I know they're doing some more um courts in Atlanta New Orleans and a couple other places um and yeah the shoes on my shoes I have the coordinates of that Park on on my shoes that I wear on court it's been on my shoes since the cg1 launch um so it's really special uh to come back and um be able to do something for the community that that did a lot for me hey Coco welcome to Miami just um checking to make sure how are you feeling after Indian Wells and I know you had the little bit of uh I don't know if it was illness or injury or something but uh but just yeah uh are you feeling 100% as this tournament starts yeah I'm feeling 100% I was a little nauseous um just for like that forall game it was a weird thing I never had that before I don't know if it's cuz we started and stop it stopped or whatever um but hopefully it's just a one time thing I haven't experienced anything since and uh I full 100% And and ready to have a good tournament here hey Coco this is hey oh sorry this is your home tournament and obviously it's great to be home but are there any surprising cons about being home like are there any uh routines that you have to change where you're in a hotel versus when you're at home um not really I mean only my family can be a little loud sometimes so I have like not really my just my little brother um so I had to text him this morning to like stop screaming I think he was playing a game or something um and he said he was sorry so just him but other than that no it's it's really nice and refreshing um and I feel like it just makes it more like feel like practice um just cuz I'm staying home and but other than that there's no not really many routines that feel different um cuz I'm usually traveling with both my parents um and one brother is out of town so it feels um the same as a tournament yeah uh Coco uh do you have someone scouting the match that's going on now you play the winner uh yeah I'm I'm pretty sure Brad's Brad's probably out there he said he was right got I you know the players have you played both um I've never played either I obviously know ashleen Krueger well cuz she's an American and and my age and Nadia uh I know she was injured for a bit and is trying to find her groove um but I've never played either right just the other thing I mean with the Sabal Linka still in the tournament as we speak what's your thoughts on that and uh you know happened yesterday I know you were so involved with the event yesterday but what's your thought on it looks like she probably will play uh yeah I don't have any thoughts on it I think I just I offered her my condolences through a text message and um you know I don't think people should dig into whether or why she's playing or or whether she plays it's uh totally her process and I feel like we should just leave it at that hey Coco Michelle coffin from Mi Herold um two questions one are you I I hope you didn't answer this already cuz I just got in late um you had your 20th birthday last week and you were going to do some kind of Celebration with your family here I'm wondering if you did that is there some restaurant or somewhere you went that you enjoyed being with your family and then the other thing is um speaking of family there are so many moms on tour right now more than there used to be and I'm just wondering as a young woman you know what what does that mean to you to see so many moms and babies roaming around and and women that are still playing and babies toddling around thank you yeah um so for my birthday uh my dad made some seafood like a seafood boil and we just had some family over at the at our house and with the mom's question I mean it's very cool I think it's inspiring for other moms out there um not just in sports but in workpl in general um I don't know if it's something that I would want to do cuz I feel like already is you know young and and not having kids it's stressful so I can't imagine with kids or maybe it's even less stressful I don't know um but it is pretty awesome to see um especially you know with female athletes because you know motherhood is um you know when it comes to the physical aspect a little bit harder than and than fatherhood when being an athlete so it's cool to um just see a lot of moms being successful on their comebacks um Coco you secured a spot on Team USA in the Olympics in Paris this summer what did you feel in that moment when you found out and how are you preparing for your Olympic debut yeah I mean I'm going be honest it wasn't much of a shock I I I didn't even know that you know they were that there was like a numbers thing that people were keeping track of um but it wasn't a shock to be honest um I'm just really happy that I was able to do that and hopefully you know everything goes smoothly last Olympics I qualified and I got Co so I'm hoping this time around it'll be smooth uh yeah turning 20 I mean was that a landmark to you not being a teenager anymore did it have any extra significant I feel like for you guys yeah I've been asked this question like a hundred times uh no I it doesn't have any significance for me it's just a another year uh coko talking again about the Olympics what are expectations for um I mean expectations I don't have any cuz I don't know what to expect uh honestly and you know the peers that did the 2020 Olympics it was Co so I don't I really don't know what the full experience is like um and yeah I mean goals I mean the goal is obviously to medal and hopefully come home with gold um but honestly I really want to I wanted to enjoy the experience and not make it so much pressure as maybe other tournaments um just cuz you know it's probably once or two times maybe Max maybe three that I actually get to do this in my career um so I want to really you know enjoy it especially the first time around sorry hey coko uh Brad Gilbert has talked about uh coaching a lot of players he says he loves coaching you loves being a part of the team and that he's learned how to communicate with you best um do you feel the same way do you feel that he's able to push your buttons and and get you moving and and what has he added to your team yeah I Brad I mean you know he's a very quirky guy and it's something that we did have to learn to like communicate with each other it wasn't any bumping heads or anything um but like yeah I'll give him you know funny banter nothing you know serious and with him back and uh he's a very simple guy and he tries his best to explain tennis and make it as simple as possible which I think is helpful for me in my game and yeah what he's added obviously he's just a great mind of the game and and you know he knows what areas to improve and and how to improve it and some you know I feel like with comes to my game people make things more complicated than it actually is okay Courtney up the back and then after that we'll do one more cooko on the topic of public courts and and growing up on them I'm curious sometimes at public courts depending on the city there's a lot of like older gentlemen who are playing for like beers like you know they're just kind of like that's I'm Cur and I think Daniel Collins was once talking about how like she would go and like play against these guys like when she was younger just to honer game and something like that I'm just curious if you ever I don't know just like played complete random strangers on the public courts in Florida um no not really I'll be honest like at the time where I was at Pompei park it you know wasn't that many people playing tennis and then the community that grew that it you know was found kind of founded in it's a little bit under with a lot of underprivileged kids and Tennis being expens expensive sport it just wasn't a thing they had tennis courts there but uh honestly it wasn't just like a thing in the community but the basketball courts would be full and and the baseball courts would be full so with the black community honestly tennis is now becoming more popular because of the William sisters so um yeah I really didn't have that many people like just random people that I would play with I always had to like actually have a planned practice um yeah and honestly it was just like one um couple older couple that would hit out there a lot but um by that time I was like 11 or 12 when they started coming around and I was just better too too good to play with them um but yeah they were very always you know rooting me on and I I don't know I never you know got their names but you know they were there for like a year so I I wonder you know where they are now they were really nice okay last one coko just going back to staying at home why did you choose to stay at home and not at the local hotel um you wouldn't have had annoying little brothers bothering you and and also on Brad Gilbert he's been known to keep on yap yap yap yap um have you told him to trap uh to shut the trap at all uh yeah with the first question um I mean being at home I mean from the hotel it's 30 minutes with no traffic 45 with traffic and from home it's 45 no track traffic um in an hour and I I take the turnpike I live right next to the turnpike um so it didn't make sense to stay in a hotel when it's almost the same distance I'll take an extra 15 minutes to be home um and then with Brad yeah he is know to talk and yes we do have conversations about you know the limit limitation limitation of that and limiting um that as much as possible um but you know it comes in good in good heart and he is uh doing better and yeah he's just an older gentleman um so it's not something I'm not used to my grandmother is what we call a yapper as well and um so you know sometimes it just reminds me of the relationship my mom has with her mom cuz she talks a lot and sometimes like my mom have to tell her like to be quieter especially when it comes to tennis like she'll say things like you know why didn't you do this that and that and like my mom will see I'm getting like annoyed by it cuz she knows tennis but not as well so it just reminds me of that but obviously Brad knows tennis um and he's very smart at what he says but a lot of times it's not really the tennis that he's talking about he'll talk about just random things outside of it so yeah it is a a funny relationship we have but um the guy is full support on my team and um full 100% loyalty and it's something that I really appreciate and it's something that I think I think is rare in tennis