No Appearance Fee? Team USA Gelato Outing Leads to Good-Natured Gauff Trash Talk

Earlier this week several American tennis players went out for dinner and some gelato in Rome. An evening of camaraderie, team building and sampling the best that Rome has to offer left the Americans in good spirits. 

The Player’s Box Podcast – the brain child of Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Desirae Krawczyk and Jennifer Brady, filmed a running review of the gelato, with players ranking their gelato – spoiler alert: Frances Tiafoe gave his gelato a five out of five, while the rest of the gang, which included Coco Gauff, Hailey Baptiste, Ben Shelton, Iva Jovic, Pegula, Caty McNally and more, didn’t go over 4.3. 

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There was just one problem with the video, which was released on Instagram: no appearance fees! 

“Not in the budget yet,” Pegula replied to Gauff’s comment about the topic. 

Gauff was asked about it on the Tennis Channel desk and kept the joke running. 

“Someone commented and they were like, did she pay for gelato?” she said. “And I was like, no, she did not. 
We all had to pay for our gelato… I asked her, I was like, you’re not going to pay big mama, especially Jess. I mean, if you know.

“I’m like looking at the views. I think that’s going to be one of their most viewed videos. So I feel like we should get something out of it. So I’m specifically talking to Jess here, but also Madison, Des. Jenny wasn’t there, so she gets a pass.”