Coco Gauff calls out Jessica Pegula after Italian Open outing – ‘Not going to pay’ | Tennis | Sport

Coco Gauff has jokingly called out her good friend and rival Jessica Pegula for not covering the cost of their late-night gelato. Gauff, Pegula and a host of American tennis stars went for dinner in Rome during the Italian Open earlier this week, then grabbed some gelato afterwards. Pegula co-hosts The Player’s Box Podcast with Madison Keys, Desirae Krawczyk and Jennifer Brady, and they made the most of their outing by getting the rest of the American cohort to rate their gelato in a fun and chaotic social media video.

Brady was the only member of the podcast not in Rome, but Pegula and Krawczyk got their fellow players to rank the desserts while Keys filmed. Gauff wasn’t the only one joining in – the likes of Frances Tiafoe, Iva Jovic and Hailey Baptiste also got involved. But the world No. 4 has now joked that Pegula should have paid for their gelato, given that The Player’s Box crew got some content out of it.

Last year’s Italian Open runner-up discussed the nighttime gelato outing on Tennis Channel, and said: “Someone commented and they were like, ‘Did she pay for your gelato?’ I was like, ‘No, she did not!’

“I think she could have paid for our gelato, and I asked her, like, ‘You’re not gonna pay, Big Mama?’ Especially Jess, like if you know, you know.”

Pegula’s father, Terry, has a net worth of £6.8billion ($9.3billion) according to Forbes, and owns the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. And Pegula herself has been nicknamed ‘Da Fu’ or ‘Big Rich’ by her Chinese fans as a result – something she has joked about on the podcast.

Gauff now believes she and her fellow American players are owed something after appearing in the gelato-rating video for The Player’s Box Podcast, which has hundreds of thousands of views.

“I’m also looking at the views and I think that’s going to be one of their most viewed videos, so I think we should get something out of it,” she jibed, “I’m specifically talking to Jess, but also Madison, Des. Jenny wasn’t there so she gets a pass, but they should have split it between all of us.”

It wasn’t The Player’s Box women who organised the outing, however. Gauff explained that the American players all went for dinner earlier that evening. But when they all stopped for a second dessert, Pegula and co. seized the opportunity to create some content.

“We all went to Taverna Trilussa that night and had dinner there. We’re all big backs. Most of us got desserts at that restaurant and then we went and got gelato afterwards, which is probably not the best. We had a good time,” she said.

“The review, definitely chaotic. Frances and Ben were talking. I was like, You better be careful because the mics might pick up whatever you’re talking about. Hopefully they didn’t say anything. I was like, ‘Y’all should watch what y’all say!’ No, it was super fun to be with the team, just be around some people that I don’t necessarily get to talk to a lot, like Learner [Tien], [Alex] Michelsen. That was pretty cool, too.”

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