American 15-year-old sensation Cori “Coco” Gauff has made her way into the main draw of the $250,000 Citi Open, cruising through two rounds of qualifying in her first tournament after her memorable Wimbledon run.
After seeing qualifier Gauff’s victories over Venus Williams, Magdalena Rybarikova and Polona Hercog en route to the fourth round at Wimbledon, it’s hard to believe that the hardcourt event in Washington DC will be only the third main draw of her career. The success at the grass-court Grand Slam saw the teenager’s WTA ranking rise from No.313 to No.143, but her pre-Wimbledon ranking was used to gain entry into the Citi Open, so she was unsure whether she would even get into qualifying of the International-level tournament.
As the last player accepted into the Citi Open qualifying, the top-seeded Gauff defeated fellow American Maegan Manasse 6-4 6-2 on Saturday and then cruised past Japanese eighth seed Hiroko Kuwata 6-1 6-2 on Sunday. Her first opponent in the main draw will be Kazakh Zarina Diyas, currently ranked 84th.
American Sachia Vickery and Russians Varvara Gracheva and Anna Kalinskaya also victoriously finished the final round of qualifying.
Not surprised at all by Coco’s outstanding performance. Looking forward to watching her play this week at the Citi Open (hope it’s televised on ESPN since I no longer get Tennis Channel). She’s such a joy to watch!