Wimbledon 2019: Coco Gauff aiming to buck the trend of young players struggling at Grand Slams

Gauff, who turned 15 only four months ago, is already the youngest player to have come through the Wimbledon qualifying tournament and the youngest to reach the second week here since Jennifer Capriati in 1990

As Wimbledon enters its second week, age is all the rage. Roger Federer (at 37 years and 340 days) and Rafael Nadal (at 33 years and 41 days) are both aiming to become the first man to win five Grand Slam titles after turning 30, while Serena Williams (at 37 years and 290 days) will be hoping to become the oldest women’s Grand Slam singles finalist in the Open era.

At the other end of the scale, the remarkable Coco Gauff, who turned 15 only four months ago, is already the youngest player to have come through the Wimbledon qualifying tournament and the youngest to reach the second week here since Jennifer Capriati in 1990.

If she wins her next four matches, starting against Simona Halep in the fourth round on Monday, Gauff would become the youngest champion of a senior event in 142 years of Wimbledon history. The record is held by Lottie Dod, who in 1887 needed to win only three matches to claim the women's singles at 15 years and 285 days.

Nevertheless, all the talk in recent years has been of the increasing age of tennis players. Research by tennisheadmagazine last year revealed that the average age of the world’s top 100 men and women had risen sharply. Between 1988 and 2018 the average ages of the world’s top 100 men rose from 23.74 years to 28.26 years. Over the same period the average age of the top 100 women rose from 22.56 years to 25.8 years.

Thirty-somethings continue to dominate in the men’s game. Forty-seven of the 128 starters in the men’s singles here were aged 30 or over, while the last man under 30 to win any of the four Grand Slam singles titles was 29-year-old Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2016.

Not much looks likely to change over the next week or so. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are still going strong here and of the 16 players left in the men’s singles only 21-year-old Ugo Humbert and 23-year-old Matteo Berrettini are under the age of 27.

Although most of the younger players have failed to make a significant mark in the first week here, times are starting to change on the men’s tour. Of the current top 30 in the world rankings, six players are aged 22 or under: Alexander Zverev (aged 22), Stefanos Tsitsipas (20), Borna Coric (22), Felix Auger-Aliassime (18), Denis Shapovalov (20) and Alex de Minaur (20). Now they need to make their breakthrough at Grand Slam level.

The younger generation have fared better in the women’s game. The last three Grand Slam titles have been won by comparatively new faces – Naomi Osaka took the US Open and Australian Open while Ashleigh Barty won at Roland Garros – and the world’s top 40 includes three teenagers who have made big strides this year.

Amanda Anisimova (17) won her first tour title in April and made the semi-finals at last month’s French Open, Bianca Andreescu (19) won Indian Wells in March and Dayana Yastremska (19) is through to the second week here in only her fourth Grand Slam tournament.

Gauff, nevertheless, is the one who is tearing up the record books. Born in 2004 (by which time Venus Williams, her first-round victim here this week, had won four of her seven Grand Slam singles titles), Gauff became the youngest US Open girls’ singles finalist in 2017, when she lost to Anisimova.

Last year Gauff became the youngest player to take the French Open girls’ title since Martina Hingis in 1993. She went on to make the quarter-finals of the girls’ event here and won the girls’ doubles at the US Open.

Martina Hingis went on to enjoy tremendous success (AFP)

This year Gauff has been competing at senior level with remarkable success. At 15 years and 122 days she became the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open era and the first 15-year-old to compete in the main draw since Laura Robson was awarded a wild card in 2009. Tracy Austin, Capriati and Hingis, nevertheless, all made their Wimbledon debuts before their 15thbirthdays.

Since then Gauff has beaten Venus Williams, Magdalena Rybarikova and Polona Hercog in the main draw, but now comes a much more daunting test against Halep.