Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff are eyeing Olympic glory next year as their doubles partnership evolves to be one of the best in the world despite their differences.
There are plenty of similarities between Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff. They're both wonderful tennis players who had a lot of success recently. They're also American, and they both enjoy playing doubles together.
It will not last forever, but they're still focused on playing together, especially with the Olympics in Paris next year. Despite the similarities, there is also a pretty glaring generational gap between the top that is noticeable.
They work well off the court, but Pegula realized there was a definite generational gap the more she got to know Gauff. In a talk with Forbes, she laid out how they differ in that sense.
She’s definitely Gen Z. I didn’t really notice it and then as we started hanging out more, just being together more on tour, I’m like, ‘Okay yeah there’s definitely a generational gap here.’ No friction but she makes fun of me because I don’t know about any of the TikTok trends and stuff like that but it’s more poking fun at each other.
Gauff once admitted in a self-roast that she spends way too much time on TikTok, but it's pretty standard for her generation. Despite being one of the best players in the world, she's just a regular teenager outside of the court.
Overall, the journey of being doubles players was very nice for both Pegula and Gauff, who had a lot of success together and became better players. The partnership will likely end in the coming years, so winning a gold medal would be a nice way to finish together.
I think it’s more just been a really fun journey that both of us have been on at different points of our career, totally different learning curves. She’s done all this so young and me being a late bloomer, it’s very different.