French player Paire out of U.S. Open after positive virus test

Young star matures before fans’ eyes as she adjusts to tour.

French tennis player Benoit Paire tested positive for the coronavirus and was removed from the U.S. Open field, according to reports Sunday.

Paire is the first player to test positive ahead of the Grand Slam tournament, which begins today without spectators amid the pandemic.

Paire’s status had not been announced Sunday by the U.S. Tennis Association, but the USTA later issued a statement saying a player — whom it did not identify by name — “has been withdrawn” from the U.S. Open. The statement said the player is asymptomatic.

Paire, 31, was seeded 17th and was supposed to face Kamil Majchrzak of Poland in the first round Tuesday. Contact tracing will now be used to determine who might have been exposed to Paire.

NEW YORK — Listen to Coco Gauff speak about tennis, and she hardly sounds like a 16-year-old. She sounds like a veteran of the sport.

Listen to Gauff speak about the issues of the day, and she doesn’t sound like an uninformed kid. She sounds like an adult, filled with knowledge and insight.

Listen to her speak about not being able to practice driving because she misplaced her learner’s permit — and, finally, Gauff sounds her age.

“I still need to work on my parking,” Gauff acknowl- edges. “It’s so bad.”

Hard to find time working on that when there’s tennis to be played, and the former Atlanta resident will be garnering plenty of attention again at the U.S. Open, which starts today.

A year ago, using a terrific first serve and ability to go from defense to offense, Gauff beat Venus Williams along the way to the fourth round at Wimbledon as the youngest qualifier in tournament history. Then she made it to the third round at Flushing Meadows before losing to 2018 champion Naomi

Osaka in a match that ended in tears for the teen and a hug from the winner.

After collecting a singles trophy at Linz, Austria, in October — becoming the youngest WTA title winner since 2004 — Gauff began the 2020 Grand Slam season by defeating Williams again and winning a rematch against Osaka at the Austra- lian Open en route to the fourth round there.

Gauff has a tough assignment in her first-round match at the U.S. Open, facing 31st-seeded Anastasija Sevastova, a 30-year-old from Latvia who was a semifinalist in New York two years ago.

“To have the awareness to see what’s going on in the real world, then the guts to actually speak out about it on social issues, is just phe- nomenal at this age. She has an amazing platform, she knows that. I think she’s used it so well already,” said Martina Navratilova, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles. “I think she’s got a potential to really make an impact on and off the court, so I am so happy to see what she’s done so far off the court. On the court, I’m looking forward to her evolution as a tennis player. There is a lot there.”

Plenty of others anticipate big things from Gauff.

The American wants, and aims for, greatness, certainly, but she draws a distinction between that goal and any sense of putting pressure on herself.

“From a year (ago), I have more confidence. But it’s not so much like an expectation — I have belief that I can win, but not so much ‘expecting,’ if that makes sense. I mean, I don’t try to put any expectations on myself. Whatever happens, happens,” Gauff said. “And you just try your best to approach the moment with your best tennis and your best mentality. That’s what I’m going to do at the U.S. Open.”

So one win is just a win, one loss is just a loss — but they’re to be learned from.

Beaten this month at Lexington, Kentucky, in the semifinals of her first tournament after tennis was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gauff said afterward she would head to her hotel room and watch the defeat to try to understand what happened.

“I still don’t have a lot of matches under my belt,” said Gauff, who has played fewer than 70. “I’m still learning and adjusting to the tour.”

That sort of perspective comes through when she discusses racial injustice and police brutality, including during an impromptu speech at a Black Lives Matter rally in Florida in June, when she implored the audience: “We must first love each other. ... Second, we must take action . ... It’s in your hands to vote for my future, for my brothers’ future and for your future.”

Gauff said she found out about two minutes before- hand that she would be addressing the crowd — and her nervousness was compounded because she stepped to the microphone after her grandmother, who is “really good at those type of things.”

“It was just definitely from the heart, and I think when you speak from the heart, you get the message that you want,” Gauff said. “The world was just finally waking up. … We need people to speak out.”