Tennis teen can’t believe her year
American Gauff won titles in both singles and doubles
WASHINGTON Teenage tennis sensation Coco Gauff describes herself as “just a kid who has some pretty big dreams” on her Instagram account. She certainly realized big dreams as much as any athlete around her age in 2019.
Just 15, she announced herself to the sporting world this summer at Wimbledon, beating her childhood idol, Venus Williams, in the first round and toppling a succession of higher-ranked players to reach the fourth round.
At Washington’s Citi Open, she won the first doubles title of her career in early August, just days after meeting her role model, former first lady Michelle Obama.
In late August, Gauff faced the defending U.S. Open champion, Naomi Osaka, in a prime-time, sold-out match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the world’s biggest tennis venue.
Though she lost in straight sets, she rebounded in October by winning her first WTA singles title in Linz, Austria.
By season’s end, the hard-hitting, steely nerved Gauff boasted nearly 615,000 Instagram followers and a career-high world ranking of 68 after opening the year at No. 685. And she achieved all this with her feet planted firmly on the ground and her focus intact.
In a telephone interview this week, Gauff reflected on her season’s defining moments — some of which, she said, she still can’t quite believe — and spoke about her plans for 2020, confirming that they include a return to Washington’s Citi Open, which will be contested Aug. 1-9.
“Last year I won my first WTA title in singles or doubles in Washington, and I also got to meet Miss Michelle Obama, which was really cool as well,” Gauff said, noting the two spoke for nearly an hour about the importance of following one’s own path and handling pressure. “My family and I had a good time in D.C., so it wasn’t hard to make the decision to come back.”
Having Gauff in the 2019 Citi Open field on the heels of her breakout performance at Wimbledon energized Washington sports fans. Crowds packed the stands for her qualifying matches and returned in droves for her singles campaign, which ended with a first-round loss, and her triumphant doubles run with Caty Mcnally.
“Coco-mania” was even more palpable at the U.S. Open three weeks later.
“Coming out of Wimbledon, she was the tennis story,” said Chris Widmaier, the U.S. Open’s managing director of communications. “It’s not every day that a young tennis player turns into water-cooler talk, but people who followed the sport only tangentially knew about Coco Gauff and were excited about her.”
Gauff’s U.S. Open ended with a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Osaka that was made memorable by the players’ heartfelt exchange after, with Osaka,
then 21, insisting Gauff join her in the victor’s customary on-court interview so the tearful teen could be further cheered by a crowd that had rooted her on throughout.
It was the tournament’s shining moment. And it endures with Gauff, too.
“I really didn’t want to take the moment from her, because she had reached the round of 16 and it was her moment,” Gauff said. “But she gave me such sweet words and I think she meant it.”
Looking back on the tears she shed, Gauff said it wasn’t so much the defeat that upset her — Osaka was, after all, the world No. 1 — but the fact that the match was over so quickly, in just 65 minutes, before she found her footing.
“The whole match I felt I just was adjusting,” Gauff said from her home in Delray Beach, Fla., where she is training during the off-season.
She had adjusted so well to the mania that erupted at Wimbledon. In the heady days that followed, she met actor and musician Jaden Smith, Facetimed with his mother, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, and got social media shout-outs from Samuel L. Jackson and Snoop Dogg. But none of this upended her focus.
“I was hungry for more — not more of the attention, but more of the winning,” Gauff said. “I wanted to improve my ranking. After that, every time I accomplished a goal, I would set a new goal, so I always had something to reach for.”
Today, Gauff said she still can’t quite believe she has a WTA singles title, calling it “kind of crazy.” But she is enjoying her nearly threemonth off-season and the time it has afforded to catch up on her online schooling and elevate her game with an eye toward a busier tournament schedule in 2020.
“We’ve been working a lot on changing directions, stepping into the court and pretty much everything,” said Gauff, who turns 16 in March and will be permitted under WTA rules to play a slightly heavier tournament schedule.
She will open the 2020 season with a tune-up event in Auckland, New Zealand, two weeks before the Australian Open.