Coco Gauff‘s doubles partnerships never fail to create fresh headlines. While a majority of the fans from today have seen her play with Jessica Pegula and Katerina Siniakova, there was a time when she used to rule the courts with a Cincinnati native. As the US Open 2023 champion prepares to begin her campaign in the city of “reds, Bengals and tennis” she cherished flashbacks of the matches won alongside Caty McNally.

Gauff recently reminisced about her doubles partnership with none other than the second half of the McCoco team, Caty McNally. She remembered how important the Cincinnati Open was to her when they played together and reflected on their quest of reaching the Round of 16 in 2021 along with making it to the US Open finals the same year. “Winning here and knowing Caty McNally, I knew how important it was for the community for the tournament to stay,” Gauff said.

Besides her and Caty, Gauff also mentioned how the city loves the sport and encourages young ones to be a part of it. “Cincinnati is such a sports town with the Reds, Bengals, and tennis. Hopefully, with this staying here, we can get a lot more of the local community kids playing. There are obviously a lot of pro players coming out of here,” she added.

Gauff reminisced about her previous run amidst her preparation for the ongoing tournament in Mason, Ohio in an interview with cincinnati.com . The WTA pro has been facing issues in her playing style because of which, she had to go through an unexpected setback at the WTA 1000 event in Toronto.

Earlier this year, the Cincinnati native also shared her thoughts about her relationship with Gauff and their successful run as a team. “Coco and I, yeah, like we are not playing right now, as everyone has probably seen, but we still have a great friendship.”

McNally also highlighted that she and Gauff continue to support each other despite not playing doubles together. “I thought it was incredible. Yeah, no, I reached out to Coco and congratulated her on that milestone,” she said, speaking of Gauff’s remarkable victory alongside Katerina Siniakova at Roland Garros.

As Gauff gears up to begin her title defense run, her memories of playing alongside McNally reminded her of the joy they experienced together. Even though they’re on different paths right now, their friendship and respect for each other remain intact. While Gauff remembered her partnership with McNally, her bond with Jessica Pegula still brings countless questions.

Jessica Pegula explains how Coco Gauff “isn’t interested in playing“

Jessica Pegula recently shared why she and Gauff did not enter Cincinnati as a pairing for doubles and for the rest of the season. Both players achieved a No. 1 ranking in doubles and have won five titles as a team. Despite the enormous success as a team, they had a surprising early exit at the Olympics which seemed to have shattered them, leaving no choice but to take some time off.

Pegula said, “I know Coco isn’t really interested in playing, or at least we’re not thinking of playing, so I probably will take it easy on the doubles the rest of the year.” She also mentioned that things were a bit uncertain regarding her doubles future but eventually explained that she plans to focus more on her singles game for the time being.

Pegula teamed up with Giuliana Olmos for the tournament in Toronto. Although the newly formed duo faced a defeat in the quarter-finals, Pegula won the singles title for the second consecutive year. As she is now focused on being stable on her singles run, this could be a moment where a another one of Gauff’s doubles partnership comes to an end.