Coco Gauff’s Wimbledon loss to Angelique Kerber won’t dim a bright future

Via the tip of June, 17-year-old Coco Gauff regarded able to make a run at tennis’ premier occasion, Wimbledon. After her 6-3, 6-3 victory final Saturday over Kaja Juvan of Slovenia on the famed Centre Courtroom, the American teenager definitely deserved to be on the quick record of gamers who may win the glistening Venus Rosewater Dish, offered to the women’ champion.

On Monday, Gauff’s run got here to a halt after she was eliminated by the always dangerous Angelique Kerber (the 2018 Wimbledon champion) within the fourth spherical. However as the Daily Mail noted, Gauff’s loss doesn’t dim her future. In any case, Gauff appears to be like virtually able to bear the torch of American tennis excellence that her idols, Venus and Serena Williams, have carried for the reason that late Nineteen Nineties.

Consider, any Twenty first-century reference to U.S. tennis excellence is all about ladies — and principally ladies of colour. No American man has received a serious tennis match (Wimbledon, U.S. Open, French Open, Australian Open) since Andy Roddick triumphed within the U.S. Open in 2003.

And far more can be manufactured from U.S. male inferiority in tennis have been it not for the camouflage offered by the prolific Williams sisters.

Serena’s 23 Grand Slam singles titles are essentially the most within the Open period (since 1968). Venus has received seven majors in singles, and the sisters have mixed for 14 main titles in doubles and eight Olympic gold medals (4 for every).

Any musings on the big potential of Gauff can be incomplete with out paying homage to the Williams sisters. Serena and Venus haven’t solely proven U.S. tennis followers what profitable appears to be like like, however they’ve additionally impressed two generations of women to think about the game cool sufficient to play.

Coco, born Cori Gauff in Delray Seaside, Florida, is a kind of ladies. (She goes by Coco as a result of her father is known as Corey.)

Thanks largely to the Williams sisters, Coco can stand on a tennis courtroom as a Black woman in a predominantly white sport and never appear misplaced. A path first blazed by Althea Gibson within the Fifties and traveled by Arthur Ashe within the ’60s and ’70s has been cemented by Venus and Serena.

Within the 1997 U.S. Open semifinals, Venus Williams’ Romanian opponent Irina Spirlea deliberately bumped her as they walked to their chairs. TV cameras caught Spirlea laughing in regards to the bump. Afterward, she informed reporters, “She thinks she’s the f—— Venus Williams and he or she doesn’t have to maneuver.”

Williams won the contentious match in a third-set tiebreak. That she turned a tennis legend and Spirlea a mere footnote is totally becoming.

However what separates Gauff from different ladies who dreamed of emulating the Williams sisters is her pedigree. Her father performed basketball at Georgia State, and her mom, Candi, competed in gymnastics earlier than excelling in observe and subject at Florida State.

The Gauffs have produced a participant who stands 5-foot-9, competes fiercely, hits with authority from both facet, runs down the whole lot and may ace anybody within the ladies’s recreation.

Corey Gauff is Coco’s major coach, however she additionally works with Patrick Mouratoglou, who coaches Serena and males’s star Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Whenever you add all of it up, Gauff is greater than tennis’s subsequent massive factor. She’s prepared for main trophies now.

At 17, Venus introduced her arrival within the sport by reaching the ’97 U.S. Open closing. Serena did massive sis one higher, by profitable the ’99 U.S. Open on the identical age.

To look at Gauff, in her fashionable braided hair, conquer her more-experienced foes with precocity, athleticism and unusual poise is to be reminded of what the Williams sisters achieved almost a quarter-century in the past.

This yr at Wimbledon, Gauff confirmed the identical pace, courtroom protection, stable groundstrokes and excessive tennis IQ she displayed in a coming-out get together on Wimbledon grass in 2019, when she defeated Venus within the first spherical and fell to eventual champion Simona Halep within the fourth spherical.

This yr, Gauff unveiled a much-improved second serve, taking away one in all her weaknesses. And it appeared like the trail at Wimbledon can be smoother with out Naomi Osaka, who withdrew. (Osaka introduced she’ll play within the Olympics in her native nation, Japan; Coco will play for Crew USA.)

Serena additionally needed to withdraw after she fell and injured her left leg within the first spherical. The withdrawal was one thing Gauff couldn’t bear to watch.

“I turned away as a result of stuff like that makes me, like, actually emotional,” she informed reporters.

It’s more likely to be much more emotional for Gauff when her tennis idols bid farewell to the game. Venus is 41; Serena turns 40 in September. However Gauff is already properly on her method to comply with of their footsteps. Crowds have been as soon as gradual to heat to the Williams sisters. However after Gauff defeated Juvan, she heard the sort of raucous cheers usually reserved for British gamers.

“It’s not typically {that a} 17-year-old will get to play [on Centre Court], so thanks,” she informed a BBC commentator in an on-court interview after the match.

Kerber of Germany prevailed on Monday. However anybody watching can make certain that in the future quickly Coco will hoist a gleaming silver dish of her personal.