Wimbledon 2019: Cori Gauff, dealing with challenges and expectations that other 15-year-olds can only dream of

How do most 15-year-olds think of spending their Monday evening? Getting their homework done? Studying for a test? Being a rebel and sneaking out of the house to party with their equally carefree friends? [caption id=“attachment_6916531” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Cori Gauff of the U.S. celebrates winning her first round match against Venus Williams. Reuters[/caption] Cori Gauff was doing none of that this Monday (although she was studying for a science test a couple of weeks ago). Instead, she was staring down a room full of middle-aged men and women asking her loaded questions like “How will you cope with the pressure of expectations?” and “When did the belief that you would be the greatest begin for you?” Of course, Gauff did display a few tell-tale signs of teenage flightiness during her presser. She often broke into giggles during her answers, talked about how she had cried when Iron Man died in Avengers Endgame, and admitted she got just a B in that science test. But she was surprisingly comfortable under the gaze of all those prying eyes, and didn’t seem particularly shocked that she had just defeated seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams at the biggest stage of them all. No stammering, no broken answers; this was a girl who was seemingly well-prepared for exactly these kinds of situations. This was a girl who knew there would be many such situations in her life. “I want to be the greatest,” she declared when asked how far she felt she could go in the sport. Were we ever so confident as teenagers? Two days ago, Gauff was making headlines for becoming the youngest Wimbledon qualifier in the Open Era. Now she has gone ahead and topped that, beating a legend of the sport at her own game. And that last bit is not just a figure of speech; she and Venus have such similar playing styles that at times the only way to tell them apart was from their outfits (which were also not very different, given Wimbledon’s all-white dress code). The easy power on the serve, the relentlessness of the groundstrokes, the athleticism in the footwork – Gauff’s game is almost a carbon copy of Venus’. That shouldn’t be surprising either, considering Gauff has repeatedly stated in public that Venus is her role model. On this day though, the devotee managed to teach the idol a few tricks. Gauff matched Venus’ power stroke for stroke, and was significantly better in one key aspect: digging out low balls. She is tall (for her age), but never had any problem getting the ball back over the net when Venus’ flat shots were skidding through the surface. Gauff’s impressive hand skills were more than enough to make up for her slightly sub-par movement. She stayed in the points long enough to repeatedly force Venus into volley errors, or make her experienced opponent overhit. There was another area where Venus was clearly second best: the amount of spin she was putting on her forehand. Venus has spent a lifetime alternating fierce forehands with limply netted ones, and this day was no different. While she hit some blazing forehand winners – including one to save match point – she was simply too inconsistent off the ground to sustain a sufficiently high level of play for long. In sharp contrast, Gauff made just two unforced errors in the first set, and eight overall. She was imparting such heavy spin on her forehand that even her shanks were somehow falling in; Venus was left flat-footed on more than one occasion by a shot she thought was going out. Surely Gauff couldn’t have outperformed Venus in the serve department though? Astonishingly, that’s exactly what she did. The 15-year-old hit four aces to Venus’ two, and won a remarkable 78 percent of her first serve points. More importantly, she found her best serves when she needed them the most; almost every time Venus threatened to break, Gauff promptly snuffed out the threat with a big serve. Gauff looked like the better player for the first set and a half, but down the home stretch, she also showed more self-belief than the veteran of 20-plus years. Even after making two double faults to get broken for 4-4 in the second set, Gauff didn’t stop going after the ball. She faced another break point while serving for the match, and calmly sent down a 108 mph second serve that Venus couldn’t get back in play. “It was now or never,” Gauff said later when asked to describe what she felt while facing that breakpoint. It’s certainly ‘now’ for the young American, and that’s mainly down to her courage in the face of pressure. She largely eschewed the hit-or-miss mentality that is typical of teenagers blessed with a similarly powerful game, but as the stakes got higher, her shots got bigger and closer to the lines. The fearlessness of youth can be a strange and wonderful thing – and it was on full glorious display in Gauff’s match against Venus. The crowd, as you’d expect, responded appropriately to the dramatic story unfolding before their eyes. For the most part, they were on Venus’ side, egging on their beloved champion to keep fighting, but by the end, they were also applauding Gauff’s plays with throaty enthusiasm. They could see there was something special about the kid. The kid is keenly aware of her special powers too. “I wasn’t surprised that I won”, “When I stay calm and composed I can do anything”, “My goal is to win this tournament” – Gauff didn’t shy away from self-praise while assessing her own self after the win. That assessment may not always be as glowing as it is now. While Gauff is incredible at dealing with the low bounce of grass, it remains to be seen how she fares when the ball is repeatedly at shoulder length. Her movement could also be exposed by more consistent hitters than Venus, along with her forecourt play. But all of those things are worries for the future. At the moment the American has the world in the palm of her hand, and she is – deservedly – enjoying every bit of it. “I’m going to be up all night trying to respond to everybody,” she said when asked what the state of her phone was after her win. At least in that one aspect – having phone conversations late into the night – Gauff is not very different from a regular 15-year-old.