As Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva confronted off on the U.S. Open on Wednesday, followers within the stands remarked about how previous — actually how younger — they had been whereas competing on the prime of their sport.
Gauff, who at 19 just isn’t a lot older than the 16-year-old Andreeva, has for a number of years been a family identify in tennis, ever since she made a run to the fourth spherical of Wimbledon in 2019. Her rising stardom implies that she usually finds herself enjoying in featured matches on the U.S. Open, in entrance of probably the most followers in particular person and in selection tv slots.
On Wednesday, that was in a 6-3, 6-2 win over Andreeva at Arthur Ashe Stadium, enjoying forward of Novak Djokovic. It was a matchup, and a second, that Gauff, a sixth-seeded American, managed with ease whereas protecting a breezy however brisk tempo.
Some of her confidence, Gauff acknowledged, comes with expertise. When requested on the courtroom what she had realized up to now three years, Gauff stated that when she was 16, she performed each match as if it had been “life or death.”
“You still have to allow yourself time to make mistakes,” she stated. “And the losses, as long as you learn from them, are OK.”
Andreeva, an unseeded Russian, stated after the match that she hadn’t gotten a lot recommendation from older gamers on tour but, however that she was keen for his or her knowledge: “I will always listen to them.”
Andreeva performed in her first tour occasion this 12 months and has proven some youthful struggles in sustaining her composure on the courtroom. In her final match in opposition to Gauff, on the French Open within the spherical of 32, she hit a ball into the stands, hanging a spectator. She obtained a code violation and acknowledged that she might have been disqualified, calling it a “really stupid move.” She was additionally fined $8,000 at Wimbledon for unsportsmanlike conduct after throwing a racket, arguing and refusing to shake arms with the chair umpire.
Andreeva has defended herself by saying that Roger Federer had outbursts when he was younger, too, echoing an argument that different gamers, like Serena Williams, have made about whether or not girls’s gamers and males’s gamers obtain related scrutiny for his or her conduct.
Gauff, who has usually been complimented for her composure, stated this week that she debated whether or not to complain throughout her opening-round match in opposition to Laura Siegemund in regards to the tempo of play, with Siegemund usually pushing the serve clock to its limits.
“I really don’t like confrontation all that much,” Gauff stated in her postmatch media interview on Monday. She stated she had been fascinated about the delays the entire match. “I wasn’t sure if I was in the right or not until it happened multiple times,” she stated, however she reached a degree of frustration and felt the necessity to communicate as much as the chair umpire.
“I try my best not to let my emotions to take over myself,” she stated.
Gauff pledged forward of her second-round match to not be flustered by her opponent this time, and to disregard age — her personal and Andreeva’s. “She has her ranking, and that’s all that matters,” Gauff stated forward of their match.
Instead, their youthfulness performed out within the type of athleticism, as they traded lengthy, sprinting rallies from the baseline and as Gauff discovered openings to inch ahead and end factors.
One rally within the second set lasted 30 photographs, and ended with Gauff expertly dealing with a drop shot from Andreeva with a backhand method shot for a winner. She celebrated that time by urging the gang to cheer, a request followers rapidly obliged.
By then, it was clear that Gauff and Andreeva have had no bother reaching younger followers.
“It’s amazing that they are so young and they have this amazing skill and talent to just be here and play on that court,” stated David Keating, 10, as his father utilized sunscreen to him and his twin brother, Michael.
Eve Maulshagen, who began enjoying tennis three years in the past and simply made her highschool group in Central New Jersey, stated in the primary plaza at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that she appreciated the concept somebody at 16 might be enjoying in entrance of so many individuals on TV. “That’ll be me in a year when I’m 16 — but not like a pro,” she stated with amusing.
Gauff has been making an attempt to disregard age as an element throughout her matches. On Friday, she is going to play Elise Mertens, a 27-year-old from Belgium, within the third spherical. They have performed twice, and Gauff received each matches, most not too long ago through the French Open in 2022 within the spherical of 16.
“I want to maintain a long career,” Gauff stated throughout her on-court interview on Wednesday. “I have to really have fun on the court and I think I’m having fun with the wins and losses.”
Source: www.nytimes.com