Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff have heaped praise on each other as the duo continues to progress in both the singles and doubles competitions at Indian Wells.
Playing together in the doubles format, Pegula and Gauff have reached the round of 16 at Indian Wells and will play Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi next. But the American players have also reached the same round in the singles tournament.
Speaking at a post-match press conference after beating Anastasia Potapova on Sunday, Pegula was quick to praise the mentality of her playing partner Gauff.
"I think she has a really good head on her shoulders. It's definitely not life or death with her for tennis."
In addition, the world number six highlighted how Gauff focuses on other areas of life beyond tennis, which ultimately benefits her game.
"I think she has a good balance of everything else with her family off the court. She likes to have fun with everything she does off the court. But I think she's definitely really close with her family, which I think keeps her very grounded and with her siblings and stuff like that."
Gauff also reacted to the positive words from Pegula. Following her win over Linda Noskova at Indian Wells, Gauff said that she feels like Pegula is her sibling on the court.
"She's like one of the nicest people ever. Someone, she's older than me. You know, she deals with all my antics when I try and say certain things. In a way, like, she does, in a way, she's like my on-tour older sister in a way,"
The American pair have already achieved success on the doubles front in 2023. Pegula and Gauff won the Qatar Open in February for their first tournament success of the season.
It followed a strong 2022 season in the doubles format where the pair won three tournaments, including at the French Open.