15-year-old Cori Gauff writes history as the youngest player with..
While some of her coevals have been preparing for the upcoming Wimbledon junior event, the 15-year-old Cori Gauff is in the qualifying draw of the main event, ranked just outside the top-300. Super talented American had a stellar 2018 season despite the fact she was the youngest player in almost every draw she entered, conquering junior Roland Garros and becoming world no. 1 at the age of 14. Also, Cori made her first pro steps and decided to leave the junior circuit behind after winning the Orange Bowl in December. The youngster has already competed in one final on the ITF level this year, gathering the experience and improving her game regularly to fight against much older rivals. Cori failed to qualify for the main draw at Roland Garros and will try to change that at Wimbledon, defeating the top seed Aliona Bolsova 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 12 minutes.
Despite the rival's ranking, this was a good draw for Cori, knowing the fact Aliona had played only two matches on grass in a career before Wimbledon, last week at home in Mallorca! Thus, the American has become the youngest player with a top-100 triumph at Majors since the 14-year-old Martina Hingis who reached the fourth round at the US Open 1995, adding another record to her already impressive tally! Both players struggled to find the rhythm on the second serve but Cori forged the gap with an impressive performance behind the booming first serve that already reaches a tremendous speed, fending off seven out of 11 break points and stealing almost 60% of the return points to grab six breaks from ten opportunities. The Spaniard kicked off the match with a break, staying ahead until game four when Cori broke back with a beautiful forehand winner, delivering another good return game at 3-2 to open the gap.
Aliona forced an error from the youngster in game seven to pull the break back before losing serve again to send Cori 5-3 in front, wasting three break chances in the next game and allowing Gauff to claim the opener 6-3 following a service winner after 32 minutes. Servers claimed only four points in the first four games of the second set, unable to hold serve and to create the advantage. That all changed at 4-4 when Bolsova netted an easy backhand to lose serve, pushing the youngster a game away from the victory. Just like in the opener, Cori had to battle from 40-0 down in that tenth game, repelling all three break points and sealing the deal with a service winner to book the place in the second round where she should be the favorite against the Russian Valentyna Ivakhnenko.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2LkNc6D
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