Lucky Loser Teenager Coco Gauff Captures First WTA Title - Mondays with Bob Greene

Mondays with Bob Greene

STARS

Daniil Medvedev beat Alexander Zverev 6-4 6-1 to win the Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, China

Rebecca Peterson beat Heather Watson 6-4 6-4 to win the Tianjin Open in Tianjin, China

Coco Gauff beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 1-6 6-2 to win the Upper Austria Ladies Linz in Linz, Austria

Juan Pablo Varillas beat Federico Coria 6-3 2-6 6-2 to win the Santo Domingo Open in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Christopher O’Connell beat Steve Johnson 6-4 6-4 to win the Northbay Healthcare Men’s Pro Championships in Fairfield, California, USA

Mikael Ymer beat Mathias Bourgue 6-1 6-4 to win the Internationaux de Tennis de Vendée in Mouilleron-Le-Captif, France

SAYING

“Everybody is talking that they need new guys, something new, so I gave them something new.” – Daniil Medvedev, after winning Shanghai, his second straight ATP Masters title.

“In the past few months, he’s probably the best player in the world, making it to six finals in a row, winning a Masters (1000), making it to the US Open final.” – Alexander Zverev, speaking about Daniil Medvedev.

“I’ll remember this day for the rest of my life.” Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old American lucky loser who won her first WTA title in Linz, Austria.

“Well done today to Coco. You have a bright future. It was a pleasure to share the court with you today.” – Jelena Ostapenko, who lost to Coco Gauff in the Linz final.

“I got my first title in Nanchang just a couple of weeks ago, and now I’ve got my second title, so I’m obviously enjoying my stay here in China.” – Rebecca Peterson, after winning the Tianjin Open.

“The young guys are knocking on the door big time. It’s exciting, it’s great.” – Roger Federer, noting that four young players – Germany’s Alexander Zverev, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas and Italy’s Matteo Berrettini – reached the semifinals at the Shanghai Masters.

“I honestly feel like they are more threatened than I am, and that makes me more relaxed on court. I know I just have to hang in there and be able to be more aggressive. Once you get aggressive and they see you going for it, I might even say they get scared. – Stefanos Tsitsipas, saying he isn’t intimated by the Big Three of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

“Yes.” – Novak Djokovic, when asked if Stefanos Tsitsipas has the potential to be ranked number one in the world.

“I think I will be able to put more of my emotion into it by playing for the pride of the country.” – Naomi Osaka, who kept her Japanese citizenship in order to represent Japan in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

SHANGHAI CHAMPION

Capturing his second consecutive ATP Masters 1000 trophy and reaching his sixth straight final, Daniil Medvedev is showing off credentials that could take him to the top of the men’s rankings. The Russian’s first victory over Germany’s Alexander Zverev gave Medvedev the Shanghai Masters crown to go with the Cincinnati Masters title. “This one is also amazing because Shanghai, I think, is one of the most prestigious Masters on the Tour,” Medvedev said. “Especially in the past 10 years there were only three players who managed to win this so, so it’s really special to have my photo in the corridor over the next many years.” After splitting the first six games, Medvedev won eight of the next nine to go up 6-4 5-0. Two games later, he fired an ace on his first match point. “It’s something outrageous that I’ve done in the past few months and I have been working for it,” Medvedev said of his winning ways this year, including a runner-up result at the US Open. It was the first Masters 1000 final between two players under the age of 24 since Novak Djokovic defeated Gael Monfils at the Paris Masters in 2009.

This was the first Masters 1000 final featuring two players under the age of 24 since Novak Djokovic (22) defeated Gael Monfils (23) in the 2009 Rolex Paris Masters championship match. “He’s a different player now,” Zverev said of Medvedev. “You can’t compare.”

SWEET BEGINNING

Lucky loser, indeed. Coco Gauff, who got a second chance after losing in the opening round of qualifying, capped her week by stopping Jelena Ostapenko and winning her first WTA title. “I’m still overwhelmed and shocked,” Gauff said. The 15-year-old American became the youngest player to win a WTA event since Czech Nicole Vaidisova won her first title in 2004, also at the age of 15. “I guess it’s crazy to say it’s my first WTA title,” the winner said. “This was definitely not on the calendar at the beginning of the year because I didn’t think I’d have a chance to get in, and now I’m the champion, so it’s crazy.” The week didn’t begin well as Gauff lost in the first round of qualifying. But she learned she was in the main draw 40 minutes before her match. She made her opportunity count by beating Stefanie Vogele, Kateryna Kozlova, top-seeded Kiki Bertens and Andrea Petkovic before stopping Ostapenko, the former French Open champion. “My dad told me when I got in, before the first main-draw match, ‘You can’t lose twice in the same tournament.’ I’m sure he never thought it would come this far, to being the champion, but I guess he was right,” the teenager said. Gauff is the youngest American to win a WTA tournament since Jennifer Capriati at Toronto in 1991.

SECOND TITLE

Rain forced the Tianjin Open final to be played indoors, which was just fine for Rebecca Peterson. The Swede won her second title in China in two months by beating Britain’s Heather Watson in straight sets. After a five-hour rain delay, the two players took to the court only to have rain begin again during the warmup. Officials then moved to an indoor facility where Peterson rallied from a break down in each set, falling behind 0-2 both times. The winner committed only 26 unforced errors while Watson had 38. Peterson began her Asian swing last month by winning the Jiangxi Open in Nanchang, China. She began her title run in Tianjin by beating Venus Williams. “I think the challenge of this week was just to keep going and try to play my game in every match,” Peterson said. “I think I had some really tough matches, like yesterday, the day before, even in my first round.”

SELECTING JAPAN

Naomi Osaka is Japan’s highest-ranked player. Now she’s giving up her American citizenship in order to represent Japan in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan, to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, and was raised in the United States. Until now, she had dual citizenship with the United States and Japan, but Japanese law requires that she choose one or the other by her 22^nd birthday. That’s this week, so she chose Japan, saying it will give her “a special feeling to try to go to the Olympics to represent Japan.” She currently lives in the USA. A two-time Grand Slam tournament champion, Osaka has won her last two tournaments, the Pan Pacific Open in Osaka, Japan, and the China Open in Beijing.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

Maybe Shanghai was a peek at the changing of the guard. First, 21-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece upset top-ranked Novak Djokovic 3-6 7-5 6-3. Then, almost immediately following that shocker, 22-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany knocked off Roger Federer 6-3 6-7 (7) 6-3. In one unexpected quarterfinal day, the top two seeded players and two-thirds of the Big Three, were eliminated from the Shanghai Masters. Since 2010, only three players – Djokovic, Federer and Andy Murray – had won the hard court tournament in China’s biggest city.

SAYONARA

Belgium’s Steve Darcis has confirmed that he plans on retiring after next year’s Australian Open. “I made a successful comeback in 2019, but after Wimbledon I got problems again with my shoulder,” Darcis said. “Mentally and physically, I’m no longer at my best.” Darcis upset Rafael Nadal in the opening round at Wimbledon in 2013. Two years ago, he reached a career-high in the ATP Rankings at 38^th in the world. But he missed the 2018 season due to an elbow injury. He returned this past January and reached his first ATP Tour semifinal in seven years in Pune, India. After 16 years on Tour, Darcis spoke of his retirement plans at the draw ceremony for the European Open, which will be held in Antwerp, Belgium. For his final tournament on home soil, Darcis received wild card entries into both the man draw singles and doubles. “Plenty of strong career moments will stay with me forever and I hope to end the year in a nice way,” he said. “This also goes for my last tournament here in Antwerp.”

SWISS FURY

The normally cool demeanor displayed on court by Roger Federer went missing during his three-set quarterfinal loss to Alexander Zverev. The veteran Swiss star twice hit the ball out of the court in anger, engaged in a row with the umpire and was given a point penalty. After saving five match points to force a decisive third set, Federer became engaged in a continual war of words with the chair umpire. He was trailing 3-0 30-15 in the third set when he was assessed a point penalty. When asked in his post-match news conference about his conversation with the umpire, Federer shrugged his shoulders and said: “So you can write something on Twitter, yeah? Next question.”

SEES CHALLENGERS

According to Roger Federer, there are eight young players who are ready to challenge the top three men – Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer himself. Since Nadal won his first Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros in 2005, the Big Three have accounted for 51 of the last 59 major titles. They have won the last 12 Grand Slam tournaments, the second longest streak won by the trio. The last player not named Federer, Djokovic or Nadal to win a Grand Slam tournament title was Stan Wawrinka, who captured the US Open in 2016. But Federer now feels the challengers are ready and able. “Not like there were none beforehand, but now they are playing with the big boys, you know, and really able to challenge us, beat us, having good rivalries also within each other, which I think is important for them to improve as players,” the 38-year-old Swiss star said. “I remember when I was coming up and I had (Marat) Safin and (Andy) Roddick and (Lleyton) Hewitt and (Wayne) Ferreira and everybody. You don’t want to be the last guy of that group. … So, I think it really creates good intentions to actually wanting to improve faster, and I see that right now.” Federer named Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini, Karen Khachanov, Denis Shapovalov and Nick Kyrgios. “Yeah, they’ve got our attention, no doubt about that,” Federer said.

SAYS BABY COMING

Andy Murray and his wife Kim are expecting their family will grow almost any day now. Murray said that while he’s playing at the European Open this week, there’s a possibility he will have to return home in time for the birth of their third child. The Murrays have two daughters, 3-year-old Sophia and one-year-old Edie. After the European Open he is taking four weeks away from the tour before playing in the Davis Cup finals in Madrid, Spain, November 18-25.

SMASHED

The USD $300,000 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon belonging to Nick Kyrgios was badly damaged when it crashed into a pole. Australian police said Kyrgios was not driving the car at the time of the crash, and it’s not known if he was a passenger. Kyrgios has not played since Zhuhai and is currently recuperating a shoulder injury.

SHARED PERFORMANCES

Fairfield: Darian King and Peter Polansky beat Andre Goransson and Sem Verbeek 6-4 3-6 12-10 (match tiebreak)

Linz: Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova beat Barbara Haas and xenia Knoll 6-4 6-3

Mouilleron-Le-Captif: Jonny O’Mara and Ken Skupski beat Sander Arends and David Pel 6-1 6-4

Santo Domingo: Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar beat Orlando Luz and Luis David Martinez 6-7 (5) 6-4 12-10 (match tiebreak)

Shanghai: Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares beat Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4 6-2

Tianjin: Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara beat Nao Hibino and Miyu Kato 6-3 7-5

SURFING

Moscow: https://kremlincup.ru/

Antwerp: http://europeanopen.be/

Stockholm: https://www.stockholmopen.se/

Luxembourg: https://www.bglbnpparibas-open.com/