"Playing Jessica Pegula is difficult, but I don't think me being friends with her makes it more difficult" - Coco Gauff on Canadian Open QF defeat

Coco Gauff has stated that Jessica Pegula is a formidable opponent and that their friendship has no bearing whenever they meet on the court.

Sixth seed Gauff took on her doubles partner and fourth seed Pegula in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open on Friday, August 11. The clash between the two highest-ranked American women went done the wire, with small margins dictating the outcome.

In a match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes, Pegula broke her four-match losing streak against top-10 opponents by defeating Gauff 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in Montreal.

At a press conference after the match, Gauff looked back on the decisive moments in the match that could have swung the result in her favor.

"It was a tough match for me today. I think I started off a little bit slow, but I was able to turn it around a little bit for the second set. Then in the third I think I could have served a little bit better, been more aggressive in certain moments and less unforced errors," she remarked.

Gauff's nine double faults, two of which came on break point in the third set, ended up proving costly. She has not lost two of her three encounters against Pegula.

When asked if their friendship made their clashes more difficult than normal, the 19-year-old declined the idea. She said that while they are familiar with each other's styles, their relationship has no bearing on it.

"It [losing to Pegula] doesn't feel as much as people make it out to be. Jess and I have obviously more of a public friendship because we're playing doubles a lot, but I'm friends with a lot of the girls on tour, so it's quite the same thing. Obviously, we're playing doubles, so you guys -- I guess our friendship is more of a big thing, but you'll be surprised how often we play people that we're close to on tour," she said.

"Playing her is difficult, but I don't think me being friends with her makes it more difficult. I think that's just my mindset. I want to win regardless who is on the other side of the court," she continued.

"When it comes to things like, yeah, she probably knows my game better than most players because we do spend a lot of time together on court with practicing for doubles and practicing with singles and stuff, but I guess the personal side of it, no, I don't think it makes it harder," she concluded.

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With win against Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula sets up semifinal meeting with Iga Swiatek

Jessica Pegula is through to the semifinals of the 2023 Canadian Open.

With the defeat of Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula claimed her spot in the semifinals of the 2023 Canadian Open. In doing so, she became only the sixth player (after Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and Chris Evert) in the Open Era to make it to the last four in each of her first three appearances at the tournament.

Pegula will next face the top-ranked Iga Swiatek, who defeated Danielle Collins 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in her quarterfinal. This will be the eighth time they will face each other on the tour, with the World No. 1 currently leading 5-2 in the head-to-head. They last locked horns in the Doha final earlier this year, where Swiatek emerged victorious 6-3, 6-0.

Interestingly, both Pegula and Swiatek have done well at the WTA 1000 level over the years. Since 2021, they lead all players on the WTA Tour with eight semifinal appearances each in the category.