Hot Coco further spices up Classic
Coco Gauff, the most talked about player in tennis this year, is coming to January’s ASB Classic.
The 15-year-old stunned the tennis world at Wimbledon this year by picking up a wildcard for qualifying and making it all of the way through to the round of 16 in the main draw.
The biggest of Gauff’s seven matches at the grass court tournament was her defeat of Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the first round, a victory that was seen as a passing of the baton moment for American tennis.
Gauff eventually lost to world No 7 Simona Halep, but last month she showed that Wimbledon wasn’t a flash in the pan by winning her maiden WTA title in Linz, Austria.
At that tournament where Gauff again had to come through qualifying, she defeated world No 8 Kiki Bertens in the quarterfinals and former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko in the final.
Gauff became the first 15-yearold to win a WTA title in 15 years and it’s no surprise that comparisons have been made between her and Jennifer Capriati.
Capriati won her first WTA tournament aged 14, but struggled with the pressure of being a professional player at such a young age and it took her 11 years and time out of the game to win her first grand slam title.
It’s a significant coup for the Classic to secure Gauff. Particularly because she has to live within the WTA’s age eligibility rules.
She can only play three tournaments before her 16th birthday on March 13. One will be the Australian Open and another is Indian Wells which begins on March 9. So it demonstrated just how highly regarded the Classic is that Gauff and her coach JeanChristoph Faurel have chosen to come to Auckland when every other tournament in the world taking place at the beginning of the year would have loved to have had her.
Gauff will also play doubles in Auckland, teaming up with 18-year-old
McNally.
ASB Classic tournament director Karl Budge said Gauff was on his radar before she was a household name.
‘‘We were talking to her long before her Wimbledon run,’’ Budge said. ‘‘She’s been a player of significant note and someone who’s clearly going to be a star.
‘‘So we started talking to her
American
Caty 12 months ago and those conversations heated up in Miami [in March]. I was lucky enough to be there when she won her first match after getting a wildcard and had chat with her after that.
‘‘We were always confident after Wimbledon that if she got in, that we’d stand a really good chance and thankfully the back end of her season has been so strong, winning her first title.’’
Because of the WTA’s age eligibility rules, Budge wasn’t able to offer Gauff a wildcard for the Classic, so she had to make it in by her ranking.
So if Gauff didn’t win the tournament in Linz last month, she wouldn’t be making the trip to Auckland.
As it is, at 69 in the world she should only just make it into the main draw.
‘‘The cutoff will be there or thereabouts, it will be close to that,’’ Budge said.
‘‘She will get in, I think the cut-off could be in the 70s.’’
The dream match for Gauff to play at the Classic will be if she goes up against Serena Williams.
She may have already beaten Venus, but if Gauff was to defeat the younger sister it would make worldwide headlines.
The full field for the women’s Classic is announced on Wednesday and Budge said he had a few more big names to unveil.