"She's someone that I look up to and it's quite incredible really that she's still playing at the highest level" - Coco Gauff on Serena Williams' Wimbledon return

Teenage star Coco Gauff heads into Wimbledon as a dark horse to win the title. The American reached the final of the French Open earlier this month, where she lost to Iga Swiatek.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the start of the tournament, Gauff shared her views about the return of Serena Williams. The World No. 12 marvelled at the fact that Williams was still playing at the highest level and picked her as a contender to win the grasscourt Major.

"I'm glad that she's back, obviously, she's someone that I look up to and it's quite incredible really that she's still playing at the highest level," Gauff said. "I remember watching that match a year ago where she had to finish short and I thought maybe that would have been the last time we saw her play at Wimbledon just from like outside perspective and you know as players we all know she's at the end of her career and you don't know how many more times you're going to see her but I think whenever she's in a tournament, I think she's always a contender to win even if she hadn't played for a year and, yeah, I'm excited to see her play."

Gauff said she believes she can win Wimbledon, especially after her final run at the French Open less than a month ago.

"Every tournament I go into I believe that I can win it and I think obviously having the good success these last couple of weeks, especially at French Open, I think it builds my confidence even more for that," she said.

The American also spoke about her transition from clay to grass, saying the process was a "lot smoother" than she had imagined.

"I'm super happy with how my prep has gone. The transition, like, went a little lot smoother than I thought it would have been just because I never went that far in the clay season before and then the grass so soon and, yeah, I've been practicing on the courts here and obviously feels great," she said.

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"I feel like I understand both sides of the situation" - Coco Gauff on Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian athletes

The biggest news leading up to Wimbledon this year has been the ban on Russian and Belarusian players. The likes of Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Aryna Sabalenka will not feature at SW19 this year. During her presser, Coco Gauff gave her a take on the situation, saying it was a "difficult decision" and that she understood both sides.

"I feel like I understand both sides of the situation. For me, it's a difficult decision just because I do know a lot of, at least on the women's side, a lot of the Belarusian and Russian athletes that I know, at least the ones I spoke to, definitely don't support what's happening in Ukraine right now. But I also do understand the side of trying to put global pressure on the Russian government to pull out of Ukraine and maybe how sports can kind of impact that," Gauff said.

In response to Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players, the WTA and ATP decided to strip the British Major of its ranking points. Gauff said she didn't have enough information regarding the situation and told the representatives of the Player Council to "do what you guys think feels best."

"Both sides of the situation are tricky and regarding the ranking points, I don't have enough information regarding that because they were deciding that during the French Open and I really didn't want to be involved during the tournament so I just told the representatvies of the players council, or at least when they asked for my opinion to do like what they feel was just not something I wanted to. Becauase I feel like I'm still new on tour and I wouldn't say that I know completely how it runs so I feel like I didn't have enough information. So I just said, you guys do what you think feels best regarding the ranking points," she concluded.