Now 19, the tennis star won Tuesday’s U.S. Open match against German player Laura Siegemund. Gauff expressed her frustrations about the game moving slowly to chair umpire Marijana Veljovic. 

According to The Atlanta Black Star, Gauff told Veljovic during the third set, “She’s never ready when I’m serving, she went over to talk like four times, you only gave her a time violation once. How is this fair?” She added, “You’re calling the score after the point is over. It’s not like we’re playing long points. You’re calling the score like six seconds after the point is over!”

Gauff repeatedly expressed her frustrations during the pace kept by Siegemund. The tennis star said afterward that her only regret was not mentioning her opponent’s earlier time-stalling tactics.

“Other than that, I don’t regret talking to the ref the way I did. … Sometimes you have these emotions, and you forget what you said. I’d still say everything I said in that moment again,” Gauff said.

Her words echo advice she received from Venus Williams during the 2021 French Open.

“I was playing doubles with her, and I broke a racket in front of Venus,” Gauff told Insider. “And she was just like, ‘You’re good, let your emotions happen. It’s OK to feel what you’re feeling and let them exit your body — don’t hold them in. On the court, your feelings are valid, and it’s OK to show them.'”

Gauff made it to the Grand Slam quarterfinals at the time ⁠— making her the youngest woman to reach this stage in 15 years. She credited Williams’ love for the sport as a continuous inspiration.

“For me, Venus, the most inspiring thing about her is the love that she has for tennis,” Gauff told reporters in July, according to Tennis Majors. “I don’t think that love has swayed over the course of her career. I think you can see players who are older now. You can have a feeling they probably don’t love it as much as they did when they started it. I don’t have that feeling with Venus. I hope I’m the same way.”

Gauff has also pointed to Serena Williams as an inspiration in her career.

“I love that she always elevates herself,” Gauff said during the 2022 U.S. Open Media Day, according to Insider. “Sometimes being a woman, a Black woman in the world, you settle for less. I feel like Serena taught me that, from watching her, she never settled for less. I can’t remember a moment in her career or life that she settled for less.”