Coco Gauff is on absolute fire at her home event. After all, she reached her first Miami Open quarterfinal with a hard-fought 6–4, 3–6, 6–2 victory over Sorana Cîrstea in the Round of 16. After the monumental win, Gauff was surprisingly asked about her ambition of becoming a mother. But make no mistake, the 21-year-old had a very straightforward answer.

At first, Gauff firmly said that she would only have kids once she is done with tennis for good. However, she did admit that her stance is prone to change in the future, pointing out how players like Serena Williams had also said the same before, but things didn’t go as she had planned. For context, Williams had won the 2017 Australian Open title while she was eight weeks pregnant with her first child, Olympia.

“I definitely wouldn’t want to have kids while I’m still playing—that’s something I’m pretty certain about. But you never know. Players like Serena Williams and Venus Williams have said similar things before,” Gauff said at the post-match press conference.

Gauff also opened up on what she would like to do after retiring from tennis.

“I don’t think I’d want to coach—you probably won’t see me doing that. At first, I said no to commentating too, but now it actually looks kind of fun, so maybe I’d consider something like that,” she added.

While we might have quite some time before those opportunities come, let’s have a look at her current campaign.

Having made it to the last eight in Miami, Coco Gauff took on Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who is also enjoying a dominant run in the tournament. The latter had not lost a set in the three matches she had played so far. However, Gauff led the head-to-head 5–2, and with the home crowd behind her, she has now made it to the semifinals.

She had expressed confidence heading into the match against Belinda Bencic and referenced their last meeting, which came at the China Open last year. In that encounter, Gauff lost the first set 4–6 but made a superb comeback by winning the next two sets 7–6, 6–2.

“With Belinda, we played recently in Beijing—it was a three-set match, and I managed to come through. She’s also been having a great season,” said the American tennis player.

Gauff’s performance at the Miami Open has been quite convincing so far. She had begun the competition by defeating Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in what was a grueling match. The second encounter saw Gauff make a comeback once again as she handed a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 loss to compatriot Alycia Parks.

Even the match against Cîrstea was anything but easy as well. While Gauff did go on to win the first set, the Romanian had an impressive reply in store and comfortably clinched the second. While the World No. 4 looked to be under pressure at one stage, she totally dominated the third set, securing her berth in the last 8.

Despite Gauff’s remarkable win, it was an off-court incident from the match that ended up grabbing the headlines instead.

Medical emergency erupts during Coco Gauff’s clash against Cîrstea

During the deciding set of the match, a 10-minute medical emergency stopped play. The 35-year-old was serving at 0-3 when chair umpire Jennifer Zhang noticed that there was something wrong in the stands. She stepped down from her chair and soon discovered that a lady had passed out. Help was called in immediately as the situation appeared to be serious.

Zhang herself ran to get water and ice towels. Gauff also contributed by handing a drink to a ball boy so that it could be passed on. Her physio was seen attending to the lady, and her condition got better soon after. The crowd breathed a sigh of relief as the situation finally came under control and the play resumed as well.

Gauff addressed the incident after the match, saying:

“I’m glad I heard that she’s okay. And that’s good to know. And yeah, it was a little bit of a wait. I want a bit faster medical team response cuz I felt like it was like 10 minutes, and no one ever actually came. So my physio was the one over there.”

“But I’m just glad to hear that she was okay. I was a little bit worried because, from where we were standing, it looked like she wasn’t moving, but they said it was more of a leg thing, and then she fainted from the shock. So yeah, I’m just glad she’s okay,” she concluded.

Incidents like these may not be anything new in tennis, but they do raise serious questions over the management of a match or even the tournament.