Coco Gauff

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2021 @CitiOpen Women’s Invitational Starts Tonight

Posted by Admin on August 5, 2021
Posted in: Citi Open, Washington, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

2021 Citi Open Women’s Invitational Starts Tonight

WASHINGTON-AUGUST 5—Starting tonight, Coco Gauff, Victoria Azarenka and Jessica Pegula will compete in the Citi Open Women’s Invitational, a special, round-robin singles event as part of Citi Open week. Pegula and Gauff were crowned singles and doubles champions, respectively, in the WTA Tour’s 2019 Citi Open.

The inaugural champion will receive $25,000 in prize money. The Women’s Sports Foundation will be the beneficiary of the tournament and will receive a $50,000 donation from the Citi Open, Citi and the Mark and Sally Ein Foundation. 

Coco Gauff

  • WTA No. 25; 2019 Citi Open women’s doubles champion; 5 WTA titles (2 singles, 3 doubles); 2021 French Open quarterfinalist

Victoria Azarenka

  • Current WTA No. 15; Former World No. 1; 30 WTA titles (21 singles, 9 doubles); 2012 and 2013 Australian Open winner; 2012, 2013 and 2020 U.S. Open finalist
Jess Pegula, 2019 Citi Open (Photo: Mike Renz)

Jessica Pegula

  • 2019 Citi Open women’s singles champion; Current WTA No. 28; 2021 Australian Open quarterfinalist

Schedule:            

Thursday, August 5 (Following tonight’s. match on Stadium Court)

Coco Gauff vs. Victoria Azarenka

Friday, August 6 (Final day session match on Stadium Court)

Victoria Azarenka vs. Jessica Pegula

Saturday August 7 (Following 7 p.m. match on Stadium Court)

Coco Gauff vs. Jessica Pegula

The format is best of 3 sets, regular scoring, with a 10-point super-tiebreak to decide the third. The player with the best record will be crowned the champion. In the event of a tie, the champion will be decided by most sets, or if necessary, most games won.

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Will Auckland Become @CocoGauff Land? 2020 @WTA @ASB_Classic Auckland Preview, Predictions

Posted by Admin on January 5, 2020
Posted in: Auckland, Australian Open, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Will Auckland Become @CocoGauff Land? 2020 @WTA @ASB_Classic Auckland Preview, Predictions
Steve Fogleman, Tennis Atlantic

Coco Gauff (Photo: Citi Open)

Or will it be like old times again with Serena and Wozniacki meeting in the final?

The 2020 Coco Gauff tour is almost underway. The ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand is stacked with the aforementioned former grand slam champions and a dose of the youth movement. Not too shabby for a WTA International level event.

Gauff, who is amazingly still 15 years old, looks to play her first pro match down under. It’s hard to believe that she made her pro debut just last year in Miami before shocking the world with stellar play at Wimbledon and the US Open.  Down Under has been patiently waiting for a chance to join her carnival of tennis enthusiasm. Gauff will have a tough opening round match against 21-year-old Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova, where she’s a favored -149, and assuming Gauff prevails, she’ll likely face Serena Williams in Round 2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova (Photo: (C) 2014 Chris Levy @tennis_shots for TennisEastCoast.com)

Svetlana Kuznetsova (Photo: (C) 2014 Chris Levy @tennis_shots for TennisEastCoast.com)

Or will she? Outside of the American teen sensation, all the buzz is about the first-round match between grand slam champs with a lot of mutual history. Serena Williams and Sveta Kuznetsova have met 13 times, and although Serena holds a 10-3 edge on the 2004 US Open champ, anyone who follows women’s tennis knows that Kuznetsova can beat anyone when she’s in form. With Serena at -400 in the match, this could be a nice upset pick.

Amanda Anisimova’s quarter co-stars Caroline Garcia, who should meet in the quarterfinals with Anisimova advancing to a semifinal against Serena Williams. Garcia’s game hasn’t inspired a lot of confidence lately, and she’s even money against Taylor Townsend in the opening round. I’m going to stand by Garcia, though, as she’d only need to beat the winner of Flipkens-Bouchard to reach the quarters.

Wozniacki

Julia Goerges is the 4 seed and her quarter is shared by 5th seeded Caroline Wozniacki. It’s highly likely that they’ll meet in the quarterfinals here, a rematch of last year’s Auckland final. I expect Wozniacki to fight right up through her supposed final grand slam in Melbourne Park to go out with a bang and I’d take her to advance to a semifinal and to contest Serena Williams in the final.

Petra Martic doesn’t get any respect as a top 20 player, as least not from me yet. I’ve been watching her fail to qualify or get knocked out of the first round of too many tournaments to mention. And her quarter is full of spoilers, like Alize Cornet, Bec Peterson, Alison Van Uytvanck and American Cici Bellis. I see Bellis surprising Martic in the quarterfinals before falling to Wozniacki in the semis. That said, the oddsmakers have installed Martic as a -149 favorite in her opener against Van Uytvanck. You’d expect a little more confidence in a 2 seed.

The fans in Auckland should get a two-fer, as they’ll see a Serena Williams-Coco Gauff battle, but they should also be so fortunate as to be gifted a blast from the past final, with Serena Williams besting Caroline Wozniacki to win her first tour title of any kind since the memorable 2017 Australian Open.

The Kids Are Alright: @Coco Gauff Advances to @CitiOpen Main Draw on Kid’s Day

Posted by Admin on July 28, 2019
Posted in: ATP, Citi Open, Washington, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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The Kids Are Alright: @Coco Gauff Advances to @CitiOpen Main Draw on Kid’s Day
Steve Fogleman in Washington

It was unbelievably fitting that the first Sunday of the Citi Open would be Kid’s Day, because 15-year-old Coco Gauff delivered for the under 21 crowd in a big way.

Nick Kyrgios, 2019 Citi Open (Mike Renz for Tennis Atlantic)

Nick Kyrgios, 2019 Citi Open (Mike Renz for Tennis Atlantic)

Earlier, D.C.-area students gathered to hit with the likes of Genie Bouchard, Nick Kyrgios, Sonia Kenin, local legend Frances Tiafoe and yes, Coco Gauff. I understand that Kyrgios was on his best behavior today and I had been a little worried. I remembered the last time I saw him around kids at last year’s US Open, when a young fan asked for an autograph. He sheepishly said, “I’ll give you an autograph for 20 quid.” The kid predictably replied, “What’s a quid?”

Nick Kyrgios, 2019 Citi Open (Mike Renz for Tennis Atlantic)

Nick Kyrgios, 2019 Citi Open (Mike Renz for Tennis Atlantic)

19-year-old Destanee Aiava came close to booking her way into the main draw alongside Gauff but came up short to Sachia Vickery in three sets. After failing to qualify in Atlanta, Donald Young’s month has a nice finish to it as he made another Citi Open main draw. Young, a 2014 Citi Open semifinalist, also needed to mount a comeback to get the job done after dropping the first set 6-2 to Gojowczyk.

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Denmark’s Mikael Torpegaard had to survive a 3-setter in the heat yesterday while Ilya Ivashka (and three other players) received a bye and a day off. After taking the first set from Torpegaard, he started to fade, and as is so common in these situations, Torpegaard’s more extensive recent knowledge of the court was likely a key.

Former UVA NCAA All-American Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, jumped out to take the first set against Vik Troicki and after two hours, was able to upset the Serbian in three to advance to the main draw. Anna Kalinskaya won a tight first set before cruising to a straight sets victory over Fanny Stollar.

Anna Kalinskaya, 2019 Citi Open (Mike Renz for Tennis Atlantic)
And finally, the main event. It shouldn’t surprise that you Cori Gauff qualified with a 6-1, 6-2 clinic over Hiroko Kuwata in an hour and four minutes today. She beat the world #338 yesterday and the #265 today. These are the kind of ranked matches that you could see going down at an ITF event like Charlottesville. Playing on Citi Open stadium court is almost the exact halfway point, size-wise, between Wimbledon and the Charlottesville ITF and it’s clear Gauff is comfortable playing anywhere. D.C. is lucky to keep her around for at least one more match, and the biggest parlor game going on right now is where will she land in the draw. I don’t know a single player who’d love to draw her.

The @CocoGauff Show at @CitiOpen Was Even Better Than I Expected

Posted by Admin on July 27, 2019
Posted in: Citi Open, Washington, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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The @CocoGauff Show at @CitiOpen Was Even Better Than I Expected
Steve Fogleman in Washington

Qualifying has a familiar refrain in tournaments the size of Citi Open in Washington. Qualifying rounds on day one are full of matches, but strangely,  it’s also a relaxing day for the press because interviews are sparse and post-match press conferences are almost unheard of. Previous qualifying crowded matches historically followed University of Virginia men or other local institutions like the Junior Tennis Champions Center, but not today. The buzz around Coco Gauff today was almost unprecedented in my coverage as a blogger over nine years, what with a full-blown post-match presser and Big Camera everywhere beaming her throughout the D.C. universe and all over the world.

Attendance at her Stadium affair today against Maegan Manasse was massive, easily the biggest crowd to ever witness a first round WTA qualifying match at Citi Open, and I’ve been every year, including the one in College Park, Maryland while the men were playing the last Legg Mason Tennis Classic here in 2011. The only crowd as big as the one at Gauff’s first match since Wimbledon that was arguably as large was the crowd that cheered on Sloane Stephens in the 2015 Women’s Final. It wasn’t just the numbers, it was the post-match cacophonous scrum of juvenalia acquiring autographs and snapping selfies that was straight out of the US Open–or SW 19. It was Wimbledon on the Potomac today.

And how refreshing was it to see the women rule the day for once at this slightly lopsided joint tournament, a WTA International analogous to an ATP 250 tournament to the men’s 500 on the same courts? Not only were these raucous netheads straight out of Fed Cup, but the Stadium EMPTIED OUT before the players had even come out on court for the following ATP qualifying match between Michael Mmoh and xxxx, I’m sorry, one Gleb Sakharov. Exciting time to be alive in men’s qualifying, isn’t it?

It was the reverse of every Sunday finals at the event since the WTA Citi Open in College Park and the Legg Mason Tennis Classic were conjoined by Donald Dell in 2012. It was Bizarro World to show my age. And it was long overdue. Here’s to a repeat tomorrow.

I woke up this morning knowing that everyone else would write about Gauff and I was determined to reflect on everything else going on at the Citi Open, and I tried. Francesca DiLorenzo and Victoria Duval played a very close match with DiLo prevailing 6-4, 6-3. Fanny Stollar and Xioadi You fought a brutal three-setter and the heat clearly took a toll on both of them but the look in the eyes of the eyes of the diminutive You said everything. You see those qualifying eyes when a competitor loses and knows they could’ve won if they hadn’t run out of gas first. It’s a marathon for players, tourney staff, fans and bloggers alike and that’s all we need to remember after this fabulous first day of a nine day hike in Rock Creek Park. And the name Coco Gauff.

American Phenom @CocoGauff: Coming to the Capital @CitiOpen

Posted by Admin on July 18, 2019
Posted in: Citi Open, Washington, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

American Phenom @CocoGauff: Coming to the Capital @CitiOpen

Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old American tennis sensation who captured worldwide attention with her star-making run at Wimbledon, is poised to make her first post-Wimbledon tennis appearance in the U.S. at the Citi Open which will take place at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center in Washington, D.C., from July 27-August 4.

Gauff still awaits a potential spot in the qualifying tournament of the Citi Open set to begin play on Saturday, July 27 with the hopes of winning two matches to advance to the main draw which runs from July 29-August 4. Gauff, who has signed up for qualifying, must use her pre-Wimbledon ranking of No. 313 for entry into the qualifying draw which will be finalized at 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday, July 26.

If she does not earn a place for the qualifying tournament, she plans to practice onsite and participate in a fan meet and greet event on Saturday, July 27, and, on Sunday, July 28, and will play a practice match on Stadium Court on Sunday, July 28, for all fans in attendance.

Coco Gauff (Photo: Citi Open)

Under either scenario, Gauff will be the host of the Citi Open Kids’ Day powered by Net Generation on Sunday, July 28 and will hold a press event on Thursday, July 25 or Friday, July 26.

“Coco’s story is a perfect fit with the history and mission of our tournament and, as potentially the next great American star, she also embodies our future and our reimagination of this storied tennis event” said Mark Ein, Chairman of MDE Tennis who took over management rights for the Citi Open earlier this year.  “Coco’s fairytale run at Wimbledon captured the hearts of fans worldwide and Washington D.C. cannot wait to host her first post-Wimbledon tennis appearance back in the United States at the Citi Open.  We hope she gets into the qualifying but if not, we will provide our community and her fans a great opportunity to meet her and watch her play and practice as she prepares for the US Open.”

—Citi Open