Coco Gauff‘s touching tribute to her dad on the Cincinnati Open ended up being a tongue-in-cheek follow-up question days later: would she actually be willing to challenge her father’s confidence and play a match against Carlos Alcaraz? And Gauff’s reply was both light-hearted and direct. 

“I mean, for the sake of my confidence, I probably wouldn’t step on the court with him,” she said. “But, you know, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I’d rather him be on the same side of the court with me and I’ll be down to play mixed doubles with him. But, like I said, my dad would still probably put his money on me, even if I put my money on Carlos.”

The joke went back to Gauff’s post-match press conference after her 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Liudmila Samsonova, her fifth consecutive victory against the Russian. Gauff took the opportunity to celebrate her father Corey’s 55th birthday, which fell on the same day back home in Florida. 

“Happy birthday dad! He’s not here. He’s at home watching in Florida but he’s 55 today. That was another thing, I didn’t want to lose on his birthday,” she said, before crediting him as the reason she took up the sport at all. 

“My dad means a lot to me. He’s the reason why I’m playing this sport and have so much belief.” In that same speech, she got the crowd laughing when she admitted how far her dad’s trust in her goes, saying he’d probably back her to beat Alcaraz.

That connection has been a constant throughout Gauff’s career, and especially when it comes to Cincinnati. On her title win in 2023 at just 19, Gauff had credited her father in her victory speech, proclaiming, “He’s the reason I’m here. The reason I play tennis. He’s the reason I believe I can do this.”

Corey has been a permanent fixture in her box, and even after achieving so much success in her career, he is known to send her scouting reports beforehand.

Gauff was actually linked to an Alcaraz pairing earlier this year

Whilst it might seem a passing joke, the mixed doubles comment was a genuine consideration earlier this year. Reports indicated that Alcaraz and Gauff were meant to partner at the US Open, but the American apparently declined the offer, and then Serena Williams was reported to have replaced her. 

Gauff has been honest about her own motives in not competing in the mixed doubles, citing the tight schedule from Cincinnati to the mixed doubles fixture of New York. “Then on top of the sponsor stuff, the pre-week, and then knowing that this finished on Monday and potentially having to play on Tuesday, I just knew it wasn’t going to work out for me, scheduling-wise,” she explained, adding that she plans her sponsor commitments as much as a year and a half in advance. 

She was careful not to close the door on the format permanently, either. “I think it’s cool, and I think it’s going to be an exciting two days, and not knocking it off for the future.”

For now, Gauff’s focus remains on her singles run in Cincinnati while chasing her first title of the season. She will now compete against Marie Bouzkova in the round of 16, marking their fourth career meeting, where Bouzkova currently holds a 2-1 advantage.