15-Year-Old Cori Gauff Defeats Venus Williams In First-Round Wimbledon Match
15-year-old Cori Gauff just defeated one of her tennis idols, Venus Williams, in straight sets during a Monday first-round match at Wimbledon.
Gauff, who goes by “Coco,” is the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon. She’s also the youngest woman to win a Wimbledon match since 1991, according to ESPN.
Gauff’s record-breaking career has already earned her an international following. She’s adding youngest Wimbledon qualifier to a list of other youngest-ever’s — at 13, she was the youngest to reach the U.S. Open girl’s final and at age 15, she was the youngest female to win in a qualifying match in the French Open. Her tennis career began at age eight.
Gauff follows in the footsteps of Venus and Serena Williams, who Gauff’s family and coaches credit for paving the path for a young black teenage girl. Originally from Atlanta, Gauff now lives in Delray Beach, Florida. She has trained at the Mouratoglou Academy in France since she was 10, and is expected to earn $1 million this year in sponsorships from New Balance, racket maker Head and the pasta company Barilla.
Wimbledon 2019: Who, When Does Cori 'Coco’ Gauff, 15, Play Next After Stunning Childhood Idol Venus Williams?
Coco Gauff took the first step of becoming the biggest sensation of Wimbledon.
The 15-year old American tennis player stunned Venus Williams, her childhood idol and a five-time Wimbledon champion, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, in her first career Grand Slam match Monday.
Gauff entered the contest as the youngest competitor ever to qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon, a year after she became the second youngest ever winner of the Junior Roland Garros at the French Open.
The next step on Gauff’s Wimbledon journey is a meeting with Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. The time of the match is to be announced.
Here is a recap of the match from the Associated Press:
In a matchup of youth vs. experience, the youngest woman in the draw beat the oldest at Wimbledon.
Fifteen-year-old Coco Gauff beat five-time champion Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 in a first-round meeting between two players with a 24-year age gap on Court 1.
The 39-year-old Williams had won four of her seven Grand Slam titles before Gauff was even born in 2004.
The 313th-ranked Gauff is the youngest player to enter the main draw at Wimbledon since Laura Robson in 2009, having come through qualifying last week.
Gauff, playing in her first Grand Slam match, converted her fourth match point when Williams sent a forehand into the net, then broke into sobs before shaking hands with her opponent.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @briannnnf. Find NJ.com on Facebook
Cori Gauff, 15, Seizes Her Moment, Upsetting Venus Williams At Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — Cori Gauff, a 15-year-old American who grew up admiring the Williams sisters, made her Wimbledon debut on Monday by defeating one of them.
Gauff’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over the five-time singles champion Venus Williams in the first round was remarkable not just for the score line but for the manner with which Gauff managed the moment.
She was unruffled from the start in her first main-draw Grand Slam singles match, responding to the 39-year-old Williams’s baseline power with ample power of her own and maintaining a tight grip on her service games.
“She did everything well today,” Williams said. “She put the ball in the court, which was much better than I did. She served well, moved well. It was a great match for her.”
Williams managed to break Gauff’s serve only once in the 1-hour-19-minute match. That break made the score 4-4 in the second set, but Gauff, the youngest woman to qualify for the Wimbledon main draw in the Open era, responded by breaking Williams straight back.
She then served out the victory, closing it out on her fourth match point. And after shaking Williams’s hand and exchanging words with her at the net, Gauff went to her chair, squatted down, put her head against the butt of her racket, and cried.
Gauff said in a postmatch interview that at the net with Williams “I told her thank you for everything that you did. I wouldn’t be here without you. I always wanted to tell her that.”
It was a debut to remember and to savor. Gauff has long been considered one of the world’s most promising players. Coached by her father, Corey, a former basketball point guard at Georgia State University, Gauff trains regularly at Patrick Mouratoglou’s tennis academy in France.
She was the youngest United States Open junior finalist in history in 2017, losing at age 13 to Amanda Anisimova, another American tennis prodigy. Gauff won the French Open junior title in 2018 at age 14, becoming the second youngest girls champion at Roland Garros after Martina Hingis.
There are no guarantees, but the talent was evident for anyone to see on the No. 1 Court on Monday.
“I think the sky’s the limit, it really is,” Williams said of Gauff.
Though it was a match between unseeded players, it was widely considered the most intriguing match of the day. Williams is ranked No. 44 and far from the peak of her powers at this stage, but she is still a dangerous player on grass, long her favorite surface.
She reached the final here most recently in 2017, but she won two of her five singles titles at the All England Club before Gauff was born. Williams and, above all, her younger sister Serena have been Gauff’s role models as she has set her sights high.
“I want to be the greatest of all time,” Gauff told ESPN at age 12.
For now, she is just beginning and will face a player with a very different skill set in the second round: Magdalena Rybarikova, a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2017.