But her ascent to the top is far from guaranteed
IT IS hard to avoid the impression that the tennis world has witnessed a changing of the guard. On July 1st , the opening day of the 2019 Championships at Wimbledon, Cori Gauff, a 15-year-old American prospect, upset the five-times champion Venus Williams in straight sets. Ms Williams, aged 39, was not the highest-ranked player to fall on the first day of the tournament; that honour belonged to the reigning US Open champion, Naomi Osaka, the second seed.
So far, she has held her own against much more experienced competition. On court, there is little to distinguish Ms Gauff from her elders. She stands 1.78m tall, and serves as powerfully as Ms Williams—herself one of the most effective servers in the game’s history. Her average first serve on July 1st was clocked at 107 miles per hour , slightly faster than her opponent’s deliveries. Her typical second serve proved more effective than Ms Williams’s comparably cautious offerings.
In the final set, she had to overcome two particularly severe hiccups. After double-faulting on the fifth and sixth points of her first service game, she immediately bounced back, winning two points with a protracted rally and a strong first serve, to secure the game. In the eighth game of the set, she double-faulted twice more, surrendering a one-break advantage and falling to 4-4 in the second set. But again, she held her nerve and regained the break in the following game.
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