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The 15-year-old American made her first foray into the world of Grand Slam tennis…

The youngest player in the Roland Garros qualifying event—and last year’s Girls Singles’ champion—was handed a convincing loss in her second qualifying match on Thursday in Paris to Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan.

That “young player” would be Coco Gauff, the promising young American whose name you should definitely know by now and probably do.

Watching Gauff up close and personal for the first time since Wimbledon Juniors last summer, I was struck once again by the promise of her game. She strikes the ball clean and mean, plays an aggressive style of tennis that at times can make jaws drop, and appears to be improving at a rapid clip.

Aged 15 years and 2 months, 2018 Roland-Garros junior champion Coco Gauff becomes the youngest female player to win a Grand Slam match (qualies or main draw) since Martina Hingis at the 1995 Australian Open.

She's one of a kind, definitely.#RG19

— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) May 21, 2019

Don’t let yesterday’s loss to Juvan fool you—Gauff is very much on the way to making a big splash on the tour but we must remember that she’s barely turned 15 and even an 18-year-old like Juvan, who proved to be a savvy clay-courter and a relentless presence from the baseline, can seem rather mature and experienced when juxtaposed against Gauff.

That should and likely will change in a few years as Gauff, a wildly athletic and graceful athlete that cuts a sleek, menacing figure on court not all that different than the one Venus Williams' cut in her younger years, continues to grow into her body and evolves into a more mature physical presence.

But we digress…

Juvan was the better player from start to finish over the course of her 80-minute 6-3 6-3 victory over Gauff on Thursday and it was still quite interesting to watch Gauff try to deal with Juvan’s made-for-clay game. There were plenty of middle-length rallies and the young American was forced to strike a lot of head-high balls on the forehand side. This is where Gauff struggled to control the rallies. With her lean, sinewy physique, Gauff showed an ability to muscle those high forehands and get them back over the net, but many times ineffectually, and it was during these types of rallies where she was at the mercy of Juvan.

Over time Gauff will likely improve in this regard. Against Juvan she showed plenty of good tennis—deep, penetrating groundstrokes that barely cleared the net (she plays with very low margin and it’s natural to think she might end up being more lethal on grass and hard courts as she develops), booming serves and a fantastic feel for the net. But she wasn’t able to take Juvan off her game often and certainly not often enough.

This caused frustration and it showed on Gauff’s face. She seemed to have a good idea of what she was up against and how much it would take for her to win this match if Juvan kept playing at such a high level (she did). As the contest wore on Gauff never ever got close to melting down (credit’s due here), but she did toss a racquet (gently) in frustration and generally exhibited the body language of a player unable to find the necessary solutions.

Even if it's not ideal there’s no shame in that. Gauff’s future is bright, and as I mentioned, she showed so much potential in winning a match at her first Grand Slam qualifying event, over 26-year-old Ankita Raina of India, and playing bravely against Juvan.

15 years old.

Last time she’ll ever need a Roland-Garros wildcard? 🙏@CocoGauff | #RG19 pic.twitter.com/8Og0ehSmAU

— Mouratoglou Tennis Academy 🎾 (@MouratoglouAcad) May 23, 2019

Midway through the second set Patrick Mouratoglou came to sit with Gauff’s team and urged her on. He’s taken a vested interest in her game and that also bodes well for Gauff’s future. You better believe that in the 20 minutes he sat courtside the mastermind that has helped guide Serena Williams to a plethora of milestones in the latter portion of her career saw enough to plan more than a few productive practice sessions for the next time the American visits the Mouratoglou Academy in the sunny South of France.

The bottom line is this: At 320 in the world and coming off her first Grand Slam qualifying win, Coco Gauff is well on her way to fulfilling her promise as a professional. Will she reach the lofty expectations that have already been set by many pundits? It doesn’t matter right now.

All that matters is that she keeps logging the hard yards, and that every tough loss is treated as an opportunity for growth.

Gauff was dealt a difficult loss on Thursday and watching courtside it was easy to see and feel how disappointed she was by her performance and the result. Already, at 15 years and two months, she expects to win matches—no matter the level, no matter the venue. That, more than anything, was what impressed me most about Gauff. You could see her burning up as she left the court. Most kids would be thrilled to have made the trip to Paris and become the youngest player to even win a Roland Garros qualifying match.

Not Gauff. She wants it all, and if I am reading the tea leaves correctly, she is likely on the practice court today with a scowl on her face.

Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori will sport decidedly different looks.
Roger Federer is bringing beige back in his return to Roland Garros.

Uniqlo, Federer's clothing sponsor, unveiled images of the apparel Federer and Japanese No. 1 Kei Nishikori will sport in Paris.

Federer: Kyrgios Doesn't Deserve Suspension

The 23-time Grand Slam champion consulted with Uniqlo designers while they created his Roland Garros kit.

"I had frequent consultations with the development team, and I'm extremely pleased with the game wear they've created," Federer said in a statement to Esquire. "This will be my first appearance at Roland-Garros since 2015, and I'm looking forward to playing in Uniqlo game wear."

 

 

 

 

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Uniqlo practice 👍

A post shared by Kei Nishikori (@keinishikori) on

May 5, 2019 at 4:02am PDT

In contrast to Federer's understated beige-and-white clothes, Nishikori will be a colorful presence on the red clay of Paris.

"I am really looking forward to competing in the French Open wearing the game wear created together with Christophe Lemaire and the Paris design team," Nishikori said. "The vivid colors to match the Paris season will inspire me to achieve my best result."

Photo credit: Uniqlo

The Tower of Tandil is backing the King of Clay despite his recent struggles.
Juan Martin del Potro says that Rafael Nadal is still a “big favorite” to win Roland Garros, despite the fact that the King of Clay has entered Rome without a title to his name for the first time since 2004.

Del Potro, who made his return to the clay at Madrid last week and fell to Laslo Djere in his first match, has been drawn to meet the winner of the Stan Wawrinka – David Goffin match in the second round at this week's Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.

Del Potro says it’s still too early to worry about Nadal.

“I don't think it's weird that Rafa doesn't win a tournament on clay yet,” Nadal said. “Many players are playing good on clay.”

Del Potro says that there’s a massive difference between notching a win over Nadal in a three-set match on the Road to Roland Garros than actually defeating him in a best-of-five format on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“But I think to my point of view, he's still a big favorite to win Roland Garros once again,” Del Potro said. “What I say all the time: you can beat Rafa once, but to beat Rafa in Grand Slam, in Paris, is another big challenge for us. We will see what happen.”

Nadal, who has dropped semi-finals in each of his first three clay-court events of 2019, is slated to face wither Richard Gasquet or Jeremy Chardy in the second round. He has been drawn into the same quarter as Dominic Thiem.

Nadal himself has shown signs of concern about his form thus far on clay, but he says that he has made strides, even if he isn’t exactly where he wants to be at this stage of the season.

“I think I have done a few steps forward, maybe not enough, but I have improved some things and we will see until when I can be able to play at a high level and I think I will be able to continue,” he said. “And if I'm not able to do these things properly, that is the end of the situation, period. We don't have to make any drama or over-think when things are going bad. It is a sport and in a sport it's a matter of winning and sometimes losing and accepting both as naturally as possible.”

The World No.1 is not feeling any pain from her recent abdominal injury. By Chris Oddo, May 6, 2019

After pulling out of her first clay-court event of the season with an ab strain, Naomi Osaka is feeling fit and enjoying this grueling section of the WTA season more than ever before.

The World No.1 battled past Dominika Cibulkova on Sunday in Madrid and suffered no setbacks on the injury front.

“I didn't feel my ab during the match,” Osaka told reporters. “I still have to, like, do treatment after, but I think it's really positive because if I did feel something during the match, of course I would have continued, but it wouldn't have looked good. But for now, I feel fine, so I think it's good. … all in all it was a good match and I didn't feel my ab flare up, so that is a positive note.”

The worry-free state allows Osaka time to appreciate her opportunity to improve her clay-court game. She enters Madrid with a 12-11 lifetime record on the surface, but already she has reached a semi-final this season in Stuttgart—she had never reached a quarter-final on clay prior to 2019.

That’s a great sign for Osaka, and it’s further proof that her willingness to embrace the clay is paying off this season.

“I think last year I was set on liking hard more than clay instead of embracing clay-court,” Osaka told reporters. “It's not like I can avoid this season, you know what I mean? So, I think this year I just sort of put on my energy into training and learning how to move better than I did before and yeah, I know what my goal is and I know what I'm trying to play for, so I'm doing whatever it takes to get there.”

It's a win for @Naomi_Osaka_ at the #MMOpen!
She claimed the match over Cibulkova 6-2, 7-6(6) 💪 pic.twitter.com/PxyalAVNGa

— WTA (@WTA) May 5, 2019

Osaka’s next challenge will be a second-round tilt against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.

If her health holds up, Osaka could be a very pleasant surprise this spring on clay. She wouldn’t be the first heavy hitter that embraced the clay and learned how to dominate on the surface. Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Kiki Bertens, Petra Kvitova and so many others have used the slowness of the surface and the fact that it gives them more time to set up and connect with big strikes to their advantage.

Maybe Osaka will prove to be the next on that list.

For now, she’s keeping it fun and enjoying—rather than fearing—the red stuff.

“Well, for me it's fun now,” she said before making fun of her sliding technique with a laugh. “I mean, I feel like there's, like, an adjustment period for me and it took a few years. But now I'm more comfortable on it. I'm not sure if it's because I had a really long training block before I came to start the season, but yeah, it feels good.”

The Tower of Tandil has just three matches under his belt in 2019.

Juan Martin del Potro is hoping to begin building form in Madrid, as he makes a return from a two month hiatus, which was needed to continue the rehabilitation of his fractured right patella.

The Tower of Tandil, making his first competitive appearance since February, has been drawn to face either Laslo Djere or Dusan Lajovic in the second round (after a first-round bye), and he’ll also pair with Kei Nishikori in doubles.

“I’m progressing every day,” Del Potro told reporters. “Coming to this tournament is one more step for me in my rehabilitation and my final recovery to feeling completely fit again and completely healing the knee injury. I think that I’m feeling better every day and I’m starting to train with the best players, which gives me my rhythm and gets me playing my best tennis. And although I need time to adapt to that rhythm, I think this is a good time for me to start to do that and that’s why I’m here.”

Del Potro, who injured the knee last October in Shanghai, has made just one tour-level appearance this season. He lost in the quarter-finals at the Delray Beach Open, and quickly realized that his knee, while better, was not quite ready for prime time.

He says that he’ll know a lot more about his form and fitness after he and Nishikori take on Robert Lindstedt and Fabio Fognini in the first round of the doubles.

“To me, playing doubles is important to test myself, to move and to start to get a feeling for playing in an official match and not just training,” he said. “If I feel as we expect after the doubles and nothing strange happens, I’m sure I’ll want to play the singles match. That’s what I’m hoping, but I have to take it day by day and hope. I’m not in any rush to start playing and to return to the tour, but my return is getting closer and closer… So it will be a few days or more yet, but I am really looking forward to doing it.”

Gracias por el cariño, Madrid 🤗 @MutuaMadridOpen pic.twitter.com/obRlDVF9M2

— Juan M. del Potro (@delpotrojuan) May 3, 2019

The German opens his bid for a third straight title on home soil at Munich.

It has been a shaky season for Alexander Zverev, but he remains dominant at his familiar stomping grounds at Munich. The two-time defending BMW Open by FWU champion eased past Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero on Wednesday to book his spot in the quarter-finals and stretch his winning streak to nine matches.

Zverev escaped a difficult first set that saw him broken twice by taking the final game from Londero (see the above hot shot for the German’s critical play in the game).

He then found his focus and rambled through the second set behind two breaks of serve to clinch his win in 64 minutes.

Zverev improves to 13-7 on the season and 13-3 lifetime at Munich. He will face Chile’s Cristian Garin in the quarter-finals.

Garin, who has been extremely impressive as a longtime promising talent that is finally making his mark on tour in 2019, eased past Diego Schwartzman 6-1 7-5 to improve to 16-6 on the season.

Third-seeded Marco Cecchinato (d. Martin Klizan) and eighth-seeded Marton Fucsovics (d. Monteiro) also advanced to the quarter-finals on Wednesday in Munich.

The draw currently shapes up as follows…

Top half QFs set at @BMWOpenbyFWU — good matchups. pic.twitter.com/YBQJ0K0quA

— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) May 1, 2019

The Spaniard says he's improving week to week on the clay.

Rafael Nadal isn’t going to let his recent difficulties on clay dampen his enthusiasm for the biggest events of the season. The Spaniard, who fell in semi-final action at Monte-Carlo to Fabio Fognini and then at Barcelona to Dominic Thiem, says he is gaining confidence despite what many perceive to be surprising losses.

"After this week, my confidence is back," Nadal said, according to ATPWorldTour.com. "I really believe that I made very good improvements to create a good base to try to achieve my goals during the next couple of weeks.”

Nadal believes he has made significant strides since Monte-Carlo, where he gave a particularly scathing assessment of his form in his straight-sets loss to Fabio Fognini in the semi-finals.

With a week off before next week’s Madrid Masters, expect Nadal to be in a more ferocious mindset as he begins the final leg of his Roland Garros preparation.

The hunger will certainly be there.

Nadal has not entered the month of May without a title on the year since 2004, and he has recently given up ground to two of his biggest clay rivals. Fognini became just the fourth player to own three or more wins over Nadal on clay while Thiem became just the second player to reach four wins against Nadal on clay.

Players to defeat Rafael Nadal four times or more on clay

Novak Djokovic 7
Dominic Thiem 4

— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) April 27, 2019

But Nadal is not concerned about the losses or the media’s reaction to his slow start on clay. He’s focused on maintaining his fitness and making steady improvements to his form as April turns to May. The Spaniard has always been the master of improving with each passing week during the clay season, and if he continues to do so he should be on track for a Roland Garros title defense.

"It was a big difference [to Monte Carlo],” Nadal said of his loss to Thiem. “Against Fognini I played the worst match probably in 14 years on clay. Today I played a good match of tennis.”

Nadal was satisfied with the way he performed against Thiem on Saturday in Barcelona, despite the fact that he struggled on serve and won just 43 percent of his second-serve points.

“The serve [was] an important part of the match this afternoon,” Nadal said. “I didn't serve well at all, especially the second serve. So when I started to miss the second serve, I really lost a little bit of the confidence on trying to go for a good first serve, because I was without confidence on the second, so that affects the first."

He added: "I really felt competitive for the first time in a way that I want to feel myself. And as I said before, I am happy and I am confident that I made a big improvement this week."

Clay season just got brighter.
Adidas is bringing the blues to red clay.

The triple-stripe brand unveiled its latest collection of high-performance apparel for the spring clay-court season—the new Escouade collection—for men and women.

More: Kuznetsova Prevails in Comeback Win

The range, which features bold designs and contrast color blocking, will be launched with the start of the outdoor clay-season and Roland Garros.

The collection will be worn on court by adidas endorsers including Alexander Zverev,  Stefanos Tsitsipas, Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza, Dominic Thiem and Caroline Wozniacki.

The Escouade Collection has been designed to make a statement on the European clay courts with bold graphics and two distinct colorways: a light blue, black and white colour story for Roland Garros, and vibrant red, light grey and dark purple for spring Masters events.

Available for men and women, this lightweight apparel range incorporates mesh layering and micro perforated fabrics for additional breathability and adidas’ industry leading performance technologies – including Climalite and Climacool to keep athletes cool and dry while on court.

Photo credit: adidas

The daughter of Serena is a pretty big star in her own right.

Olympia Williams has hit the big time. Well, to be fair, she hit the big time the moment she was born—she is the daughter of 23-time major singles champion Serena Williams after all (and she does have 559k Instagram followers)…

More: Naomi Osaka Inks Apparel Deal with Nike

But this week Olympia starred in her first TV spot for Pampers. The “wild child” is featured with Serena in a spot for the diaper company.

“I would say to parents of a wild child—instead of worrying, embrace it and make the most of it,” says Williams in the advert.

“Our newest member to the Pampers family, tennis legend, entrepreneur and super-mom Serena Williams shares what life is like as the parent of a wild child,” says Pampers. “Together, we’re encouraging parents to support their active, spirited, curious babies with the help of our Cruisers 360 FIT diapers – designed to keep up with every wild move a baby makes.”

The Russian has not played since last September.Svetlana Kuznetsova will make her return to the WTA Tour next week in Switzerland.

IMy First tournament will be at Lugano (next week) . Начну свой сезон с турнира в Лугано, на следующей неделе . 🤗🤗🤗🎾🎾🎾 ✊🏻 @ Playa Gavà https://t.co/e9bccXJHR9

— Svetlana Kuznetsova (@SvetlanaK27) April 2, 2019

The 33-year-old Russian made a comeback from a wrist injury in 2018 (starting her season at Indian Wells) and won the title at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. in August. But Kuznetsova pulled the plug on her season in September after just five more matches.

This winter Kuznetsova announced that she’d be missing the beginning of the season to continue rehabbing.

“In order to get ahead of all the rumors, I want to answer the question that worries the media and my fans. With great regret, I have to inform you that I don’t have time to recover by the beginning of the next game season. We made a difficult decision together with my team and doctors: we will give my body to recover from injuries and then begin intensive training. In the next few days I’ll undergo intensive therapy and try to keep my body in good shape.”

Kuznetsova owns 642 career wins and 18 titles. The two-time champion is a former World No.2 has reached the quarter-finals or better at 16 majors and won 152 major singles matches.

Last year she hinted that the end of her career may be coming sooner than some think. Kuznetsova underwent surgery to her left wrist in 2017.

"Of course I'm thinking about my future,” Kuznetsova told the Russian website RT last April. I'm 32 now and I can play for two or three more seasons, but anyway later I will have to find new goals and priorities in my life. Without hesitation I would definitely change my tennis trophies for a happy family life," she said.