No chill for Coco: Gauff ousts 9th seed in French Open debut
PARIS » Prepping in the relative warmth of a gym before heading out with leggings and long sleeves to make her French Open debut against the tournament’s No. 9 seed, Coco Gauff got a pep talk from Dad.
“His goal was to become anNBAplayer, andhedidn’t make it. He toldme: ‘ You’re living your dream. Not everybody gets todo that. Just have fun on the court.’ That really changedmy perspective,” the 16-year-old Gauff recounted. “Iwas really nervous going into the match. That just calmed me down. I realized it’s just a tennis match. I’m doing some things that peoplewish they could do.”
On a rather unusual start to things at Roland Garros — postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Day 1 arrived in September instead of May, with only 1,000 spectators allowed instead of more than 30,000 as COVID-19 cases rise in France— Gauff offered the latest proof that she can do most of what she wishes to on a tennis court.
Using forehand slices to throw off her older, more experienced opponent, and unbothered by her own 12 double-faults, Gauff stayed steady at the most crucial moments to beat Johanna Konta 6-3, 6-3 and reach the second round. This was already Gauff’s fourth victory over an opponent ranked in the Top 20.
Such a far cry from last year’s French Open: Gauff failed to make it out of qualifying, while Kontawas making herway to her third Grand Slam semifinal.
College football
BIGTENANDPAC-12 RETURN
TO MOST UNUSUAL POLL » No. 6 Ohio State, No. 10 Penn State and No. 14 Oregon returned to The Associated Press college football poll, weeks before they start playing, creating a Top 25 as unusual as this season.
At the top of the rankings this week, Clemson remained No. 1 with 55 firstplace votes, followed by Alabama at No. 2 with three first-place votes.
The rest of the rankings was rattled by the Big Ten, Pac-12, Mountain West and Mid-American conferences reversing course and deciding toplay fall football after initially postponing because of COVID-19 concerns.
Motor sports
BOTTAS WINS RUSSIAN GRANDPRIX » Valtteri Bottas won the RussianGrand Prix after his Mercedes teammate LewisHamilton’s race was ruined by penalties, in front of the largest crowd of the pandemic-hit season.
Hamilton had been looking to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 wins in Formula One but had to settle for third behind Bottas and Max Verstappen. Bottas built a sizeable lead over Verstappen with ease and cruised to his first win since the seasonopening Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was already under investigation by the stewards when he started the race frompole position. Before the race he twice stopped to perform practice starts at the exit of the pit lane, rather than in the designated area. That eventually earned him two fivesecond penalties, dropping him as low as 11th at one stage.
“Where’s that in the rule book?” he asked the team, and called the situation “ridiculous.”
Golf
SWAFFORD WINS PGA EVENT » Hudson Swafford stopped his slide with a 10foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, and he finished with an 8-foot par putt to hold on for a one-shot victory in the Corales Puntacana Club and Resort Championship.
Swafford closed with a 3-under 69, doing most of his work on the front nine with a 31 that took him froma two-shot deficit to a three-shot lead.
Soccer
TOTTENHAM1, NEWCASTLE1 » Tottenham fell foul of the Premier League’s newly adopted interpretation of defensive handballs, conceding a penalty deep into stoppage time to draw 1-1 at home to Newcastle.
A header by Newcastle substitute Andy Carroll struck the outstretched arm of Eric Dier inside the area and the referee awarded a penalty after viewing the incident on the pitchside monitor.
LEICESTER 5, MANCHESTER CITY2 » Jamie Vardy scored a hat trick containing two penalties as Leicester came from behind to stun hosts Manchester City in a wild win and collect a third straight victory to open the Premier League season. LEEDS 1, SHEFFIELD UNITED 0» Patrick Bamford scored an 88th-minute goal off his nose to earn Leeds a 1-0win over SheffieldUnited, which slipped to a third straight loss to open the Premier League season. WESTHAM4, WOLVERHAMPTON 0 » Jarrod Bowen scored twice as West Ham collected its first points of the Premier League season by overwhelming Wolverhampton in a win.