Coco Gauff Shares Emotional Locker Room Moment With Simone Biles at US Open

“She is an inspiration, surely, and, you know, her presence definitely helped me today,” said Coco Gauff after sealing a hard-fought victory over Donna Vekic in the second round of the U.S. Open. Defeating Vekic was no easy task. After the Croatian broke Gauff’s serve at 4-4, the star hid under her towel, on the verge of tears, staring at a possible exit. But she regrouped, fought back, and edged out the tie-break 7-5. It was pure chaos on court, yet the sight of Simone Biles in the stands gave Gauff the extra push to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The moment deserved more than applause, and a backstage meet-up sealed it.

After her game, Gauff met Simone Biles backstage, and their interaction was as sweet as caramelized apples. After exchanging thanks and congratulations, Biles, in excitement, stated that she wanted to scream Gauff’s name in the stands: “Gymnastics is so different, so I wanted to scream, ‘Go Coco!’ but then I was like, maybe not right now. But no, congrats, I love watching you, everything you do.”

Responding to this, Gauff said that Biles has been an amazing inspiration for her, “You are such an inspiration, like seriously. What I said in the interview, I was thinking about that literally. My mom did gymnastics, way lower level than you, and so she was like, ‘If I can focus on that, then you can do that.’ So I was like, yeah, that’s right, you are an inspiration, seriously.” As Biles was awestruck by the kindness, Gauff thanked her for coming to the game and left for the press conference.

Well, in the press conference, the 2023 US Open champion was asked about how Biles gave her enough motivation to completely turn the match around and claim the victory for herself. Without any hesitation, Gauff answered that…“Yeah, I think it was honestly her first Olympics. I don’t remember what year that was, but I think it was in Rio. That was maybe one of the first few times I saw her. I’m sure I had seen her before then, but that’s the one that sticks in my memory the most. And yeah, I mean, she’s one of the greatest athletes.”

She further added, “It’s her and Serena for me on my Mount Rushmore of athletes. And yeah, I think everything that she went through on the mental side of the sport is something that I followed closely and tried to learn from. So, to see her there tonight kind of gave me a reminder that I needed, and I was lucky to have just come from talking to her. I was able to tell her that in person.”

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