Gauff ’s comeback drives crowd wild
Teen fights off 2 match points before winning
WIMBLEDON, England — Cori “Coco” Gauff stood near the net, watching a lob from Polona Hercog sail over her head and across the shadows at Centre Court early Friday evening.
“Please go out, please,” Gauff said she was thinking.
The 15,000 spectators in the stands — most of them newly minted Gauff supporters — were probably thinking the same thing.
If the lob went in, it would be a winner. If it went out, another milestone would belong to the 15-year-old who has, over the past five days, earned scores of fans at not only this tournament but worldwide.
The ball landed long, setting off an immediate wave of cheers that shook the hallowed court as the longlimbed Gauff jumped up and down in delight.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it, it’s been one long match!’ ” she said later. “It’s finally over!”
Gauff had done the improbable yet again, beating a tour veteran at Wimbledon. This time she did it after losing the first set and falling behind by 2-5 in the second, when her opponent reached the first of two match points that would not be converted.
The final score: 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5, in 2 hours 47 minutes.
Suddenly, surprisingly, Gauff had barged her way into the round of 16 at Wimbledon. She is the youngest woman to reach the second week of a Grand Slam tournament since 1991, when 15year-old Jennifer Capriati made it to the Wimbledon semifinals.
Gauff has left fans at this tournament, and indeed across Britain and back home in the United States, in her thrall.
Gauff’s other victories this week — against Venus Williams, one of her idols, and Slovakian veteran Magdalena Rybarikova — had set the stage for the excitement surrounding Friday’s match.
As is now fairly well known, Gauff had not expected to be at Wimbledon this year. Ranked No. 313 in the world, she came only after receiving a last-minute wild card into the qualifying tournament, which she marched through without losing a set.
By Friday, she was Wimbledon’s headline act. Tournament organizers placed Novak Djokovic, the defending men’s singles champion, on the second-largest court, while Gauff got the main stage against the 60th-ranked Hercog.
It hit her at the start, she said later. Her description of the feeling: “Wow, I’m really on Centre Court. One of the most sacred courts in the world.”
For the first time in the tournament, Gauff seemed to play like the inexperienced teen that she is. She struggled for her range, spraying balls long and wide.
Hercog, a 28-year-old Slovenian, went all out on her own groundstrokes and homed in on Gauff ’s forehand, which has a bigger swing than her compact backhand and is more prone to errors.
“I felt like I had to go bigger, because she was hitting so many forehand winners,” Gauff said. “I knew that I had to hit bigger. I think I was trying to hit too big to a point where I was missing a lot.”
The first set went by quickly, and the second set initially looked like more of the same. Hercog raced to a 5-2 lead and was poised for the win. Serving to stay alive, Gauff saved a match point with a slicing, down-the-line backhand that peeled off the sideline for a winner.
Hercog served in the next game and gained another match point.
This time she double-faulted. From then on, this contest was a battle of wills.
In the tiebreaker, Gauff fell behind again. But she began opening her shoulders and hitting with more power, while also reining in errors. When she took the tiebreaker by ending a 32-shot rally with a forehand winner, the crowd went nuts.
“We Brits love our fairy tales, and this is a fairy tale!” a BBC announcer said.
Gauff took an early lead against Hercog in the third set but lost it. With her opponent gaining confidence, Gauff responded by cranking up her power again. She held her last two service games without losing a point.
Then, with Hercog serving to stay in the match and the crowd cheering wildly, came the final breathless, side-to-side rally. The 19th shot was Hercog’s lob. When Gauff watched it sail long, the grounds at the All England Club thundered — from Centre Court to a packed crowd watching on the video screen at Henman Hill.
In the news conference, Gauff flashed a mix of preternatural calm and teen giddiness.
“I’m definitely learning from each match,” Gauff said. “Seeing that crowd and hearing how they react sometimes in the middle of the point, they get excited.”
Then she lapsed back into being a teenager. Told that images of her mother dancing during the match were going viral on social media, Gauff exclaimed: “Please tell me she’s a meme. I’m so excited to go on Instagram!”