Coco Gauff Forgets Rackets and Still Wins 1st Round French Open Match

In March, American tennis star Frances Tiafoe walked onto the court at Indian Wells only to realize his rackets were not in his bag. The hilarious moment went viral, and Gauff begrudgingly came to the defense of her friend.

Gauff said in an interview with the Tennis Channel, "Honestly, I am going to defend Frances, which is a rare thing. I'm gonna put the blame on David (Witt). I'm putting it on D-Witt because usually the coaches."

"Well, from what I've seen and my team, the coaches will bring the rackets to us right before our match and put them in our bag," said Gauff with a laugh.

She continued, "So I have to talk. I haven't seen Frances and usually, Frances is always late to everything and does forget a lot of things. And I have seen and heard he's showed up to the airport without stuff and things like that."

But I'm going to put that on D-Witt, and I'm going to talk to talk to see if that's true. But usually, the coach will do it. So I'm gonna give Frances a pass on this," concluded Gauff.

When asked if she checks her bag, Gauff answered, "I can tell by weight. He should have been able to tell by weight. Yeah, I don't know. He's also Frances and probably wasn't thinking."

After today's win, Gauff improves to 25-8. She faces the winner of Tereza Valentova and Chloe Paquet in the second round tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28.