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In a message written on an on-court camera at the end of the
match, the 18-year-old wrote "Peace End Gun Violence" followed
by a heart.
"I think I am in a mind now like it does not matter," Gauff said
when asked about pressure ahead of Saturday's final -- her first
in a Grand Slam -- against top seed Iga Swiatek.
"Yeah it's a Grand Slam final but there are so many things going
on in the world right now, especially in the United States, a
lot of stuff is happening right now. I am not going to stress
over a tennis match."
The Unites States has experienced a number of firearms violence
and mass shootings in recent days.
These include four people fatally shot at a Tulsa medical
building in Oklahoma on Wednesday as well as the May 24 attack
at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children
and two teachers and an attack at a grocery store in Buffalo,
New York in which 10 people died.
Gauff said gun violence had affected her personally because she
had friends who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"For me, it's kind of close to home. I had some friends that
were a part of the Parkland shooting," she said.
"I remember watching that whole experience like pretty much
first hand, seeing and having friends go through that whole
experience. Luckily, they were able to make it out of it. I just
think it's crazy, I think I was maybe 14 or 13 when that
happened, and still nothing has changed."
The massacre left 17 students and staff members dead.
"I woke up this morning and I saw there was another shooting,
and I think it's just crazy," Gauff said in reference to the
shooting in Tulsa.
"I think that was just a message (I wrote) for the people back
at home to watch and for people who are all around the world to
watch," Gauff said.
"Hopefully, it gets into the heads of people in office to
hopefully change things."
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Additional reporting by Sudipto
Ganguly, editing by Ed Osmond)
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