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Oct/19

13

Coco Conquers Linz, Wins First WTA title

Mature beyond her fifteen years with a game that can outsmart and outplay veteran WTA players and champions, Coco Gauff introduced herself as the newest WTA force as she defeated former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in three sets today.

Just fifteen and in her first year as a pro, Gauff has now added her second WTA title, she won Washington DC Citi Open doubles with Caty Mcnally in August, a feat that considerably upstages the legendary player she is most compared to, Serena Williams, who won her first WTA title at seventeen in Paris.

Though she endured some bad results earlier this year – like a 61 61 pounding from Quin Gleason, the former Notre Dame player, in Bonita Springs, Gauff is on a headline making roll now, since her fourth round run at Wimbledon this summer, where she beat Venus Williams in straight sets.

Gauff also won rounds at the US Open before losing a tight duel to two time major champ Naomi Osaka.

Already Gauff has proved she can win most of her WTA matches, able to figure out and solve the games of successful pros with far more experience.

Gauff has the ability to quickly erase stinging losses like the one to Gleason and the one this week in qualies to Tamara Korpatsch, and then shift gears and produce her best tennis.

Just how good Gauff has the potential to become is a question that will intrigue the sport for many years to come.

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222 comments

  • Jon King · October 16, 2019 at 5:55 pm

    Imagine Iverson playing in today’s NBA where the defense can not hand check or be very physical.

  • Hartt · October 16, 2019 at 6:05 pm

    The match I did enjoy today was Kohlschreiber vs Khachanov in Moscow. There were good rallies and both players made some terrific shots. Karen saved 5 match points to get the win in front of a loud, supportive crowd.

    But I felt sort of bad for Kohli. I think only his coach was supporting him and it was Philipp’s 36th birthday. So not a good day to lose.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 16, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    I had the pleasure to do a Biofile with Iverson at the Meadowlands, one of his hobbies was drawing and painting, he had an artistic side. AI is one of the best NBA players I ever saw, played like a human lightning bolt.

  • Jeff · October 17, 2019 at 1:18 am

    Jack Sock with another ridiculous loss to a player I have never heard of. He didn’t even finish the match. In many ways, he is more useless than Kyrgios.

  • Jon King · October 17, 2019 at 7:27 am

    Sock plays with a beer belly and middle aged dad body. That is definitely not common on the tour!

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 9:38 am

    Incredible only five people watching Pospisil vs Polansky, We had more than five people watching two women we play with working on their serves.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 9:43 am

    Sock obviously does not take his diet and nutrition very seriously, nor does he practice very seriously. I’ve seen him practice at tournaments and the emphasis is more on fun, music playing, trick shots, throwing a football. As one observer noted, “It’s the most unprofessional practice I ever saw.” When you stop improving as a player, you go the other direction. Sock stopped improving a while ago and now he’s paying the price. I suspect Kyrgios will suffer a similar fate.

  • Jon King · October 17, 2019 at 9:54 am

    Scoop, tennis attendance and money is a crazy thing. When the ITF changed the rules to limit the number of players who are considered pros, there was an uproar. A group of players with former rankings in the 800s-1200s were saying they wanted to start their own tour. But reality is pretty stark, its hard to get anyone to watch many top 100 matches, let alone very lower ranked players.

    At least in juniors you get parents and grandparents watching. Most of these lower pros travel alone and the stands are empty.

  • Jon King · October 17, 2019 at 10:16 am

    When Sock was a junior there was a big story about how he wanted to play for his high school instead of tournaments, academies, etc. He stayed in Kansas and had fun while dominating his high school competition.

    With all the downsides of academies or intense dad coach and USTA high level juniors, it does teach discipline. Sock lived the live in high school while other juniors were structured and he still wants to live that unstructured life.

    The problem is in high school and juniors that will work for a talented guy, but not for long in the pros.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 10:28 am

    Jon, I remember seeing Sock win US Open juniors 2010 as a wildcard and talking with Patrick McEnroe about him, he was quite high on Sock, he was the USTA development head at the time. Sock beat Dzumhur on Armstrong in the semis. Interesting story that Sock shied away from the pressure of junior combat and wanted the easier challenge of high school tennis in Nebraska. Might have to consider Sock as a waste of talent at this point. With a Nadal or Hewitt mentality he could have achieved so much more. But still he has had an excellent career, major doubles titles, Olympic medals, top ten ranking, WTF semis. Sock has had an excellent career, but it could have been so much more. Maybe Sock is the trickle down result of the slacker players like Rios, Tomic, Kyrgios, Stephens, Safin? It’s normal for a lot of twenty somethings to earn millions and lose the hunger, lose the work ethic, lose the greed for more. Like Marvin Hagler the boxing great famously said, “It’s hard to wake at 5 am and run five miles in cold weather when you’re sleeping in silk pajamas.” Maybe the ones who covet to win 20 majors are the freaks.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 10:30 am

    Jon, minor league pro tennis should be more popular and better promoted, like minor league baseball and hockey and auto racing draw good crowds. Somehow tennis has failed to properly build up Futures and Challenger events. But you also have to consider, many tennis enthusiasts would rather just go and play in their free time than pay to watch some minor leaguers. I don’t know.

  • Jon King · October 17, 2019 at 10:36 am

    Scoop, Sock played his high school tennis in Kansas, he was 80-0! I think you nailed it, the players that make money and stick with the grind are the rare ones. Sloane Stephens made a ton for the US Open and took it easy.

    I marvel at Venus. We see her at the isolated park courts, in the hot, humid S. Florida weather, with her autoimmune disease, just grinding away. She is worth $100 mil! And Serena and Lebron and prime Tiger would practice after they won.

    I guess its like kids who inherit money or a business. The rare ones keep working as if they have nothing.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 11:10 am

    Kozlov update from Salzenstein: “I watched him beat Querrey. He can beat all these guys. It’s crazy how far he has come this summer. I saw no signs to suggest he was this good.” Kozlov has been in Vegas for weeks, spending time with Agassi, Jaden Agassi and Gil Reyes. He’s also in regular contact with Salzy. TO beat Ritschard today in Vegas will be a huge mental battle, he blew 5 MPS in the Futures final vs Ritschard in March.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 11:10 am

    Nishikori has dismissed Dante Bottini as his co-coach after 9 years. No word on if Chang is still on the team.

  • Andrew Miller · October 17, 2019 at 11:58 am

    Sock – is his brother ok? I know he had cancer from the news reports. Sock was getting better, then after a career year, winning quite a few tournaments though padding it with the indoor “post season” matches, he’d draw Fritz and find himself in five set matches.

    I like Sock because he’s a good thinker on court, or at least he was. I think you can’t teach that big serve, and he’s going to need to have someone intervene and get him to think about things like legacy.

    Sock has some things that can’t be taught. I’ve seen it in him, Fritz, Tiafoe, Opelka, Tommy Paul has rediscovered it. The K-instinct. Fritz lost it after his career high ranking, finds his way back out of the top 30.

    Anyways. Sock has always been a lone wolf as Dan has said. He does his own thing. It would be nice for him to get back in the groove. Some of these losses he won’t get back. But if he gets back his confidence and training so he can handle ths grind, and get on a ball machine for his terrible backhand so it at least holds up under stress, I don’t see why he’s not capable of good results and getting back to the tour full time.

  • Andrew Miller · October 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm

    Glad to hear Kozlov is remembering how to play tennis. Training with Reyes will do that.

  • Jon King · October 17, 2019 at 12:09 pm

    Kozlov is our guy. Loved watching him play juniors and he was always so nice to the younger kids.

  • Andrew Miller · October 17, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    And Ostapenko beats McNally, then Mertens for the QF. Nice revival from Ostapenko, takes a beating and keeps on winning.

  • catherine · October 17, 2019 at 12:52 pm

    Penko bts Mertens 3 sets in L’bourg, in spite of 14 dfs. Jelena seems to be on a tear. Next she’ll get Petko or Antonia Lottner and she should be the winner.

  • catherine · October 17, 2019 at 12:56 pm

    Andrew – your comment didn’t come up until I posted mine. Obviously great minds think alike.

    ‘Never give up’ should be Penko’s motto.

  • catherine · October 17, 2019 at 1:52 pm

    Andrea retired after the first set so Penko will play Lottner and I’d be surprised if she doesn’t win that.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 3:24 pm

    Wonder if Ostapenko subconsciously tanked the final to Coco. Or disappearance fee’d the loss.

  • Andrew Miller · October 17, 2019 at 4:11 pm

    Ostapenko subc it? Doesn’t sound like the modus operandi of a player struggling to regain her mojo. It would also undermine last week’s clutch play from a young, rising star. Seems like more of an any given day thing: the tour is competitive (despite Andreescu foreshadowing dominance), and last week’s trophy winner is often this week’s upset.

    Someone should talk sense to me because I’m beginning to write Tignor prose where you never make any judgment or show your opinion ever! I should be more like Doi’s coach and say your opponent is like Karlovic 😉

    Please no one comment on this…I am hoping the on court coaching blip dies. I will say Goerges has a lot of class. Maybe she is aiming for a Kerber like year and to be Germany’s top WTA player if not grab a big title.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 4:59 pm

    OCC is here forever now that Fed and Nadal OCCed Zverev to Laver Cup victory. That was one of the highlight moments of the year. OCC will show some excellent coaching and it will also feature some cringeworthy cliche fests. Muguruza shot down Sumyk’s cliches with a nuclear snide remark. Well, at least Muguruza didn’t fire him on the spot 🙂 Fed Nadal OCC on Zverev could make it a part of ATP soon. Fed is a sport changer.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 5:03 pm

    Kozlov with a big win in Vegas, new serve from Salzenstein and a new forehand too, looks like it was built by Agassi, more zip more penetration, less pushy looking. Koz lead the first set 41 and 53 but then double faulted three times in that game and ended up losing a bunch of close games to go down 56 and then Ritschard held to close the set. The same Ritschard who saved 5 MPs in March vs Koz in the Futures final. But Kozlov dug deep and won the second set 64 and the third 6-1. He was up 5-0. Ritschard held for 1-5 and Kozlov closed it out routinely. Very impressive win by Kozlov, he has improved dramatically in the last three months. Has been training with Brian Battistone in Vegas in recent weeks as BB trains some wealthy kids and Kozlov stays there. Also Koz hooked up with Agassi but not sure to what degree, I’m working on finding out more details on that…

  • jg · October 17, 2019 at 7:49 pm

    I definitely noticed some Agassi in the forehand also the service rotation.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 17, 2019 at 8:25 pm

    Salzy is the serve guru. Also word is it was “huge” for Kozlov “to get out of Orlando.”

  • Andrew Miller · October 17, 2019 at 9:49 pm

    Great WTA matches today. In Luxembourg (can’t tell what I like better, the Tashkent tournament where no one knows where the stands are and it seems like no one’s watching), or Luxembourg where the court is so small that whatever fans show up make it feel like a party.)

    -Puig must feel good in upsetting Karo Pliskova, 7-6 in third.

    – Goerges too, taking out Cirstea, who has been playing well last few weeks. I’ll definitely watch highlights of both these matches. I like Cirstea and Goerges both. I’d like to see if they can win a bigger event.

    Moscow, Pavlychenkova keeps on going, a nice autumn for her. She’s such a good player. QF yet again

  • Andrew Miller · October 17, 2019 at 9:57 pm

    Sweden ATP Tipsy d. Fognini?! Did Fogman throw in the towel? 6-1 6-1 is terrible but Tipsy must feel good as he heads toward retirement.

    Shapovalov excellent win on Popyrin. The Aussie may be the best Australian in the very near future. Huge ball. Sadly huge guy so injuries in his near future too.

    Antwerp
    Is it possible? Tiafoe wins two matches in a row! Bests Struff in two.

    Sinner d. Monfils how? Monfils and Svito both lost today. They must just be so over this season. The Italian will take it. Good quality win.

    Murray d. Cuevas, nice win.

    Moscow
    Rublev barely beats Gerasimov.

    Vegas
    Esco is still alive!!! Escobedo. A guy I still believe is the best of all of the young Americans. I think he would benefit from Stefanki etc.

  • catherine · October 18, 2019 at 1:05 am

    Andrew – you’re late to the party re Julia – she’s already been Germany’s top player a couple of years ago when Kerber took Leave of Absence and she may be top player again soon. But the big titles don’t come to her – a sf at Wimbledon in 2018 may be the best she can do. GSs seem to overwhelm her. Meanwhile we can appreciate that serve and that forehand. And the class. As Scoop says, maybe she’s too nice.

    Julia joins the coachless at present. Is this going to be a WTA trend ? Thinking of Agassi & Co and the wonders he seems to be doing – Kerber has been up to Las Vegas a couple of times and talked to Steffi and Andre but she didn’t return with anything game changing. I wonder if she’s now uncoachable ?

    Tursunov should clone himself.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 1:18 am

    Moscow: Karolina Muchova is really good. I think in facing Kuznetsova and Vekic, these matches are straightforward for her, but for anyone that gets a chance, recommend watching her. She’s at a career high ranking at #35. She has excellent disguise on her shots, and can go up the line without showing her hand.

    This girl is good. Breaking through at age 23 but you know what, what a nice nice game. A more varied game than anyone I’ve seen this year outside of Andreescu, Jabeur. And another thinking player.

    She plays a little bit like Coco Vanderw but I think with far more variety, though far less power.

    Since the retirement of A Radwanskwa I’ve hoped to see a few players with excellent court sense, knowledge, that use their intelligence. I think Muchova has this. We know Andreescu does!

    Worth watching. For those with young players at home, this is a fine strategist for you.

  • catherine · October 18, 2019 at 1:31 am

    I’ve read that Julia’s serve is hard to read – don’t know why, maybe something to do with that twisty kind of wrist flick. Serena has no trouble with it but many others do.

    I’d like to see it in slo mo.

  • catherine · October 18, 2019 at 5:14 am

    According to the WTA SAP will shortly make coaches redundant – except maybe as a verbal punch bag for frustrated employers.

    https://www.wtatennis.com/news/sap-and-wta-launch-new-patterns-play-feature-sap%C2%AE-tennis-analytics-coaches

  • Hartt · October 18, 2019 at 7:55 am

    Andrew, I’ve seen a few of Muchova’s matches over the last months and agree that she is a fine player, and fun to watch. The match I remember in particular was her 4th round match at Wimby, where she upset Ka Pliaskova. The match lasted over 3 hours, and there was no clue which woman would win until the very end.

    But, honestly, the WTA site is useless! I wondered how tall she is, and all that site gives is her name, rank ans serial number (in this case, her age). Absolutely no other basic info! But good old Wiki says she is 5’11”.

  • catherine · October 18, 2019 at 8:05 am

    Hartt – WTA seems to have a thing about players’ heights – many of them are either too coy to reveal it or the WTA flacks can’t be bothered to ask. I suspect the latter.

    In Moscow Mladenovic bt Bertens in 3 sets – a tough match in which some volleying featured strongly. Kiki is doing well with Sascha.

  • Hartt · October 18, 2019 at 8:39 am

    For Muchova, the WTA site has no additional info – no residence, place of birth, etc. I am surprised they actually have a photo. This is a player who is No.35, not some unknown. As a I said, that site is hopeless! About the only thing they do well is the WTA Insider.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 9:03 am

  • catherine · October 18, 2019 at 9:06 am

    Muchova is pretty good – for a while I thought Vondrousova would be the next Czech rising star but what with Marketa’s injuries I feel Karolina will surpass her.

    People say she looks like Chris Evert (in features) – can’t see it myself. Not remotely.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 9:18 am

    Hartt, Muchova is something! I’ll have to see the Pliskova Wimbeldon match you mentioned. That’s a good result as I was wondering how her game holds up against a power game like Pliskova. I know some folks here consider Karo Pliskova to be a robot on court – robot or not she has a big game and hits her spots.

    Anyways. I’ll check out the match you referred to. In the highlight vs Vekic (good to see her having a good year).

    The highlights kept cutting to a blond lady in the stands who was watching intently. I wasn’t sure if this was Muchova coach or family or another example of the WTA cameraman taking liberties in finding fans for the camera (which some WTA camermamen do…to the detriment of the broadcast…). In April she was coached by someone named Miske.

    Anyhows. Hartt is right the WTA site is worthless. Heck I should offer to fill in the stats. I’m sure I could find tons of useless info on the player!

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 9:21 am

    Kiki IS doing well with Bajin, true! I think it would take a lot for Kiki to max her game, she’d need to learn some new tactics, up her K-instinct, move through matches a little more swiftly.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 9:27 am

    Antwerp: Tiafoe in a grudge match with rising Italian Sinner. For whatever reason the young players that are still young whenever they play a younger player seem to summon better tennis. Tiafoe evened it up at a set a piece. Let’s see if he can make the semifinal and get his best result of the second half of the year.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 9:32 am

    Development: Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus are strong source countries for women’s tennis. Romania isn’t far behind. Russia of course for some time, now well over two decades.

    One surprising drop: Serbia. Would have thought having Jankovic, Ivanovic at top of game would have inspired some tennis coaches and parents 🙂

  • Jon King · October 18, 2019 at 9:34 am

    WTA height listings are comical, more so than the ATP. Almost all of the women or their camps want to be listed taller. From our experience at the practice courts, Opelka and Venus and Serena are their listed heights. Lauren Davis is even tinier than her listed height. Gauff is closer to 5’7 than the 5’9-5’10 that has been listed. Ci Ci Bellis is definitely a few inches shorter than they listed her when she was active.

  • Jon King · October 18, 2019 at 10:11 am

    Andrew, your comment on Serbian players brought back memories. Our very first tennis friends we met at a local court when our daughters were very young. A Serbian dad and his 2 daughters. He had fought in the war over there. He was inspired by the success of the Serb women you mentioned to get his girls into the sport. He told us in no uncertain terms that his girls would be pros.

    We had lots of fun off court but on court the entire family were beyond nuts. And that is saying something since there is so much crazy in junior tennis. The second the girls took the court, yelling, fighting, sister vs sister, girl vs dad, both girls yelling at mom when she showed up.

    At tournaments the dad would go nuts if he felt his girl was being cheated. He got banned from a few tournaments. Twice he ran onto the court and dropped the F bomb on his daughter’s opponents…and they were 10 years old!

    They older girl was the most talented by an absolute meltdown waiting to happen. She quit after about 2 years. The younger one lasted another year but has quit now too. So many girls quit between the ages of 12-15.

  • Hartt · October 18, 2019 at 10:26 am

    Jannik Sinner with yet another upset, this time against Tiafoe.

    My stream went down for a few minutes, so I used that time to check out Sinner on the ATP site. What a difference from the WTA! Not only did the site have all the basic info, it had a long bio section with the sort of information Scoop gets in his Biofiles. Plus links to several ATP articles on the youngster, and a video piece on him. My stream was back before I had time to explore everything, but will check it out more thoroughly later.

    Jannik is listed as 6’2″ and 165 lbs, but he has a very young face. He is 18, but looks several years younger – like 11! 🙂

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 10:34 am

    Hi Jon, sorry to know of these kids, fighting for their parents approval and living out their parents nightmares! I can’t imagine this is what they were hoping for in raising some kids that play tennis.

    We knew a Czech family, I think, but they may have been Slovak (this was when these countries were one), and they had in what one excellent coach said “some of best eye hand coordination I’ve ever seen”). The coach was a Lansdorp follower (he would go to Lansdorp sessions and take notes, this was the cousin of Jeff Salzenstein). Gave free lessons in parks in hopes of finding some hungry players and also with modest hope that these players would in turn or their families volunteer to grow the game (by doing clinics themselves, volunteering hitting with other juniors, etc). He found the same issue you identified.

    One, some parents, so driven for their kids to make it to the pros, only cared about that. They were cutthroat. They have nothing. They volunteered no time. They paid nothing, they paid back nothing.

    Two, their kids rebelled. The young boy with the fabulous eye hand coordination soon became spoiled, and then began hating the sport. It backfired. He also didn’t reach his potential. I’ll look it up. One because he wasn’t tall, he was a small guy and would have to learn other ways to play, not just hitting side to side.

    Overall though it was the philosophy. It was fact that they were living someone else’s life, and they were driven by their parents competitiveness and had no appreciation for the sport. Thrown racquets to follow. No volunteering.

    I could say this was an Eastern European thing, but it wasn’t. We knew other players from the region, people from Serbia that trained with Seles and were in her juniors. They were very good players and fine coaches, and they cared. Maybe at that point they were in the game as a way to get their education – no pro tour for them so it was ok I’m a good player, what can I do for myself and how can I share this sport with others.

  • catherine · October 18, 2019 at 10:58 am

    Hartt – sometimes I get the feeling the WTA doesn’t actually take women’s tennis seriously.

  • Hartt · October 18, 2019 at 11:09 am

    Catherine, I know exactly what you mean.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 11:24 am

    Do WTA players really like the meaningless WTA site? It’s good for a few things but otherwise, that was a joke looking up Conte today.

  • Andrew Miller · October 18, 2019 at 11:29 am

    McCoco wins. In Luxembourg doubles final. I think this is good stuff. When your singles tournament ends make the most of it. Ostapenko riding high again this week, and Coco G and McNally in doubles final. Thats how you get the bitter taste of losing out of the system. Win a match anywhere. Even checkers. It makes things better. Doesn’t guarantee a better singles tournament next time, but it’s better.

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