Coco Gauff, despite her youth, is one of the most mature and well-spoken individuals on the WTA Tour.
She routinely tackles some of the most sensitive topics and handles them with incredible grace and calmness.
So, it’s only right that she should be one of the key voices in the ongoing player protest against the Grand Slams, as they seek to dispute the distribution of pay amongst the athletes.
This weekend, as the latest step in the players’ plan to inspire change, they opted to walk out of their media day press conferences at Roland Garros before the 15-minute mark.
Coco Gauff has now explained just how difficult it was to rally support amongst the sport’s most elite players.
Coco Gauff admits it wasn’t difficult to get player support for their protest
Chatting at her press conference, before she called time early as planned, the American was asked if she was surprised by how well they were able to mobilise such a movement across the pinnacle of both the ATP and WTA Tours.
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However, she insisted it was easier than expected, mainly due to so many players agreeing with the cause.
Gauff shared: “I think amongst the top 10, it wasn’t really too difficult because we first had those conversations last year; actually, here was the first one I attended in person.
“So, I guess on that standpoint, it wasn’t too difficult or too surprising for me, just for my experience of how things have been going over the course of a year.
“But obviously, I don’t know, hopefully we can continue to just get more players involved and more things involved and get the results that we would like to see.”
Considering Aryna Sabalenka threatened to boycott the French Open entirely before this week, it will be interesting to see whether such threats come to light if the players do not get their way soon.
Coco Gauff’s route to her Roland Garros title defence
If Gauff is to successfully defend her Roland Garros title, she will have to go through a tough run of fixtures to do it.
And, she was arguably handed the toughest possible start in the first round, drawn to play Taylor Townsend.
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If the 22-year-old is to win that encounter, she will likely then have to beat Dalma Gálfi, Anastasia Potapova and Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second, third and fourth rounds respectively.
Amanda Anisimova will then represent the toughest challenge yet, as her expected quarter-final opponent, before Sabalenka awaits, ready for a rematch of last year’s final, this time in the semi-finals.
One of Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina is then expected to be the other finalist.
