WIMBLEDON, England – After being beaten down in the first set, 15-year-old American tennis prodigy Cori “Coco” Gauff fought her way back on Friday to win a nail-biting tiebreaker in the second set, then squeak by in the third set for a 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 win over Polona Hercog of Slovenia.
The third-round win at Wimbledon was the biggest match of Gauff’s fledgling career – as her professional career has only just begun. Having already dispatched five-time champion Venus Williams and a former Wimbledon semifinalist earlier in the week, Gauff strode onto Centre Court to face the 28-year-old Polona Hercog.
Gauff - ranked 313th in the world and a qualifier here – defeated Hercog – ranked 60th – in 2:47.
“I’m just super relieved that it’s over,” said Gauff after the match, calling the crowd “amazing.” “I always knew I could come back.”
It wasn’t the prettiest tennis, to be honest. It often wasn’t very aggressive or free-swinging. There weren’t a lot of aces; there were many unforced errors by both players (45 for Hercog, 43 for Gauff). And for long tense stretches, both played defense.
But Gauff’s win showed remarkable mental toughness by a player who isn’t old enough to drive. She never cracked. And her backstory was Hollywood-ready. An American teenager playing Centre Court. At Wimbledon. A few days after her debut here, when she bested Williams, her idol, in straight sets? Come on. The stuff of fairy tales.
Gauff is the youngest player to qualify for the Wimbledon main draw in the modern age. She’s the youngest since 1991 to win in the first round of women’s singles, and she’s so young that tennis officials have to limit her playing time under rules designed to protect players under 18 from burnout and exploitation.
Gauff was greeted on Centre Court by a round of applause and during worst patches by shouts of “Go Coco!”
At the onset, both Gauff and Hercog were chipping and charging, playing competent but not great tennis.
Midway through the first set, Gauff began to falter. Her service was first broken by Hercog, who then went on to dominate the rest of the set, winning with relative ease at 6-3.
Gauff was plagued by unforced errors. She failed to take advantage of Hercog’s second serves and she couldn’t fight her way to net often enough. Hercog went on a streak, taking seven games in a row from the youngster.
In Game 2 of the second set, after her service was broken, Gauff slumped and dropped her racket in frustration. But when it looked like Hercog would run away with the match, Gauff rallied, fighting off two match points and taking Hercog to a tiebreaker, the first of her professional career.
It was a nail-biter, with both players chipping and slicing and playing long nervous defensive rallies, slicing and slicing, hoping the other made an error. Gauff finally won the set after a 32-stroke volley, then despite a few missteps, took the third, 7-5. She advances to the round of 16 to face seventh-seeded Simona Halep.
Gauff’s debut at Wimbledon began on Monday, when she committed just eight unforced errors in a stunning straight-sets victory over Williams, 39 – who won four grand slam titles before Gauff was born.
After besting her idol on Monday, Gauff took just a second to shed a tear. Asked what it felt like to best her role model, Gauff answered, “Honestly, I don’t know how to feel” and confessed, “I never played on a court so big.”
That was before she played Court 1, and then Wimbledon’s big stage, Centre Court.
“I look at the way she plays,” said three-time Wimbledon champion and commentator John McEnroe after her debut. “If she’s not number one in world by 20 I will be absolutely shocked.”
She has handled herself with grace, charming the crowds at Wimbledon - and British fans. Gauff was featured on the front pages of several British newspapers after the upset.
“Wimbledon sensation,” was the headline on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. “WIMBLEDON GOES COCO NUTS,” blared the Daily Mail. And Twitter went a little nuts, too. Coco Gauff’s name was trending on UK social sites.
“I have seen the future of Women’s tennis and her name is Coco Gauff,” read one post.
“I literally went mental. We are witnessing something special. Coco Gauff is special . . . 15 years old, amazing,” read another.
Gauff started playing tennis at age 7. Her parents are both athletes, her father Corey played basketball at Georgia State and her mother Candi ran track at Florida State.
Martin Blackman, general manager for player development at the U.S. Tennis Association, has been watching Gauff play since she was 10 years old.
“I think we’re a little surprised too. Not so much at how good she is, but how she got so good as quickly as she has,” Blackman said. “We know she’d be great, maybe not until she was 16 or 17. But at 15, to play and beat Venus? That happened fast.”
“When you watched her play Venus, she was amazing. You can’t believe she’s only 15 years old. The symbolism in the match against Venus was extraordinary,” he said. “It came full circle and to have them going at it, the oldest vs the youngest in the field.”
This is no fluke, he promised. “Sky’s the limit with her.”
The Washington Post’s Matthew Gutierrez in Washington and Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
