“Don’t play with me! This my s**t!”. Exclaimed an impassioned Coco Gauff at the end of a grueling three-hour and 32-minute semifinal victory over Qinwen Zheng at the 2025 Italian Open—the longest match of her career. The outburst certainly grabbed headlines, but more than that, it revealed the fierce determination that has come to define the 21-year-old—trait that now extends well beyond the baseline. After all, “From the moment I first picked up a tennis racket, I’ve always believed my purpose extended far beyond the court.“, is what she had proclaimed to the world. 

It was in April 2025 that Guaff finally took a significant step off the court by launching Coco Gauff Enterprises, her own management firm to “take greater ownership” of her career. The move marked her exit from long-time collaboration with Roger Federer’s Team8 agency to pursue her passion “for making an impact – not just in tennis but in business, philanthropy and beyond” — as she shared announcing her latest venture. “This is just the beginning of an exciting new era for me, and there is much more to come, which I’ll be excited to share in due time,” Gauff had said. But even as she carves out her place in the business world, Gauff is already thinking ahead—about life after tennis.

 In a recent fun session at the Italian Open, all the tennis players were asked to reply to a few questions that were thrown at them by their fans. For Gauff, the question was that when she was done with professional Tennis, what would she do with her life. While the youthful champion laughingly said, “Yeah, this is too far of a question”, she didn’t miss a beat in revealing her post-retirement plans either. “I’d love to produce a TV show or a movie or something like that. Be an executive producer“, Guaff confessed. If you find this surprising, don’t.

After all, this wasn’t the first time that we’ve seen her showcasing her interests in film production. Last month, she shared a fun IG reel with Con Los Gonzalez de Tour. In that video clip, she was asked to name her favorite player, and replying to that, she revealed, “I like ‘Interstellar,’ ‘Aftersun,’ I’m a huge Marvel fan so I like ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Turns out, her love for cinema has strengthened her resolve to explore film production someday, too. 

For example, she also revealed, “I would love to maybe create my own brand one day. Whether that’s in film production or beauty. But preferably something in the production side of things. I think I would like to do that!“ Interestingly, even her tennis idols, Venus and Serena Williams, executive-produced Oscar-nominated ‘King Richard‘, and they also have their production ventures. For Serena Williams, it’s 926 Productions, and for Venus, it’s Deals in Heels. Is Gauff following the footsteps of the tennis idols?

Coco Gauff has a good chance of putting her name beside her idol with a win against Jasmine Paolini

It took Coco Gauff almost 3 hours and 32 minutes to take down Qinwen Zheng by 7-6(3),4-6,7-6(4) in the SF of the 2025 Italian Open. Her incredible resilience shone throughout this match, and now she sets her sights on becoming the first American to win the Italian Open title since Serena Williams in 2016. What did Gauff say after this epic battle? 

“I was just trying to go for every point. I knew before it was going to be a physical match. Last time we played was over three hours. Overall I’m just happy. Wasn’t my best level at all, to be honest. Just happy to get through it and through to another final, ” said Gauff. Although the American has a 2-1 lead over Paolini, it was the Italian who had the last laugh in their previous meeting at the 2025 Stuttgart Open.

Over there in the QF match, Paolini defeated her by 6-4,6-3, and while sharing her thoughts on that match, Gauff said, “[The Stuttgart quarterfinal vs. Paolini] was a tough match. She played well. She’s a tough opponent.” Then coming back to this encounter in Rome, she added, “I think especially here with the home crowd behind her, she’s going to be playing some great tennis. I have to expect that. Hopefully, I can bring a better level and hopefully win the title. If not, I’m proud just really of this [semifinal] match, too.“

On the other side, Jasmine Paolini denied an all-American clash in the final by defeating Peyton Stearns by 7-5,6-1 in the SF. With this win, she has now become the first Italian finalist on the women’s side in Rome for almost eleven years. Paolini expressed her joy after the match, saying, “I am very happy, I don’t know what to say! It’s a dream to be here, it’s a dream to play in Italy, it’s a dream to be able to play the final.” She will now be expecting the home crowd to show her support in this mega battle while she sets her sights on becoming the first Italian women’s singles champion in Rome since Raffaella Reggi in 1985. Who’s your pick in this mega duel in Rome?