Seizing the moment
Gauff, 15, stuns five-time champ, childhood idol Venus Williams
WIMBLEDON, England — Cori Gauff, a 15-year-old American who grew up admiring the Williams sisters, made her Wimbledon debut Monday by defeating one of them.
Gauff’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over 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 maindraw Grand Slam singles match, responding to the 39year-old Williams’ baseline power with ample power 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’ 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.
While the match between the two unseeded players was the most intriguing match of the opening day, it
was hardly the only upset. Two-time major champion Naomi Osaka, who was No. 1 until a week ago, lost 7-6 (4), 6-2 to Yulia Putinseva, joining two young members of the men’s top 10 — sixth-seeded Alexander Zverev and No. 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas — on the way out.
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.”
Gauff long has been considered one of the world’s most promising players. Coached by her father, Corey, a former basketball point guard at Georgia State, Gauff trains regularly at Patrick Mouratoglou’s tennis academy in France.
She was the youngest U.S. 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.
Williams is ranked No. 44 and far from the peak of her powers at this stage, but she remains 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.
“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.
How far does she think she can fare over the next two weeks?
“My goal,” she said, her face expressionless, “is to win it.”