Twelve hours that changed the life of 15-year-old Coco Gauff

NEW YORK—It was 9:55 a.m. this morning when Coco Gauff entered Arthur Ashe Stadium, keen to hit balls on the biggest court in tennis for the first time in her life.

Rafael Nadal had begun the last five minutes of his practice session. As Gauff dropped her racquet bag on a courtside bench, Nadal cast his quintessential hawk-like squint her way. “Good luck,” he said. In that passing moment, did the 33-year-old Nadal recall how he’d once been the teen of the hour?

That was a long time ago; this week was Gauff’s turn. More accurately, after all she’d done at Wimbledon, a second turn. Call it a homeland coda to a dazzling summer odyssey. On this crisp Saturday morning, there would be 30 minutes of practice for a third-round, prime-time match versus the defending champion and world number one, Naomi Osaka.

As Gauff commenced her practice inside Ashe, there weren’t more than 20 people watching. The ritual was no different than one she’d followed for years, at parks in her hometown of Delray Beach, at junior tournaments all over the world, this July at the All England Club Three cans of balls had been open.  There were the bread-and-butter crosscourt and inside-out groundstrokes, a few down-the-line drives, the session capped off by serves, volleys, overheads.

“She’s had the mindset since very young that pressure is a privilege,” Gauff’s mother Candi had recently told the New York Post. “Are you going to bust like a pipe or are you going to shine like a diamond?  This is something that’s been ingrained.”

Photos by Anita Aguilar

Nearly ten hours later, this time in front of nearly 24,000 people, Gauff walked to her chair on a changeover. Music echoed through Ashe, in this case, from the Jay-Z-Alicia Keys collaboration, “Empire State of Mind.” The lights will inspire you, it goes.

Gauff indeed had been inspired, competing with the jewel-like brightness her mother had dared asked her to bring. So what if at this point, Gauff trailed 6-3, 5-0? At the age of 15, Graff understood something a great many tennis players never grasp. Winning is hard. But competing is easy. All you have to do is keep trying, keep paying attention. This was Gauff’s genius. Maybe even earlier this morning, or as far back as Wimbledon, Nadal had recognized a secret sharer. Certainly those who’d packed Ashe Stadium, amid the bright lights, the noise and the music, had appreciated how Gauff had brought her heart to the tennis.

In blunt, cold tennis language, Gauff had been given a lesson in big-time power tennis, losing this match 6-3, 6-0. Osaka had the weapons, so clearly she knew that it was vital to trot them out instantly and push Gauff so close to the edge that, in her desire to match Osaka’s velocity, she would frequently fall off. “It was hard for me to take control of the points,” said Gauff.

In the first set, the gritty Gauff had twice broken Osaka’s serve, once at 3-1, the second time at 4-2. But Gauff had immediately been broken after each of those games. That first set had seen Osaka hit 15 winners, compared to a scant four for Gauff.

As the second set wore on, Osaka’s exemplary barrage continued. Gauff occupied two regions. At one level, her arsenal had been revealed, Gauff scarcely able to disrupt Osaka’s relentless depth and pace. Note this from Gauff's morning practice session: Only at 10:28, two minutes before its conclusion, did she hit any volleys. Hopefully, as Gauff progresses, she will continue to do things such as play doubles (she and partner Caty McNally are still in the mix here in New York), broaden her already impressive skill set and employ tactics that can derail the likes of Osaka.

“For me, I’m just going to continue to learn,” said Gauff.  “I still have a lot to work on, a lot to improve.”

But on the emotional front, Gauff had lived up to the tennis code, her body language upbeat, her concentration profound. “I can teach you to play,” the wise coach Pancho Segura had once said, “but I can’t teach you to care.”  Gauff was ready to leave blood on the court.

And tears. They had flowed from Gauff after it had ended. They had also come from Osaka, in empathy for her younger opponent, perhaps also fueled by an awareness of those she had shed only a year ago in the finals versus Serena Williams. Yet even before the match started, upon seeing Gauff hug her father just prior to the match, Osaka nearly cried.

Had time moved so swiftly that the 21-year-old Osaka was now the wise elder, the one who’d kindly asked Gauff to take the rare step of sharing the post-match interview spotlight?

“I wanted her to have her head high, not walk off the court sad,” said Osaka.

Said Gauff, “She was crying, she won. I was crying. Everybody was crying.”

Tennis players: Inside the lines, trained assassins. Off the court, simultaneously old souls and profoundly young, poignantly divorced from the familiar aging path.

It’s an odd thing, this sport and its need for laser-sharp focus, singular ambition, lonely competition. But as Osaka’s overture towards Gauff showed, it is also a sport of relationships, of two people engaged in that dance of competition and the deeply personal energy exchange of ball, racquet, eyes and feet, head and heart.

“Here's the thing,” said Osaka. “Like, I literally was training at the same place as her. Like, we would never hit together, but it was always just us putting in the most amount of hours. She was always with her dad just practicing. Honestly, I think she was practicing more than me.”

When I asked Gauff to explain if her tears were the result of the defeat or due to the experience of being on Ashe and all the emotion this run had entailed, she said, “I think it was a mix of both. Obviously I was disappointed that I lost. There was a lot going on. I was really trying to get off the court. Really, I don't like crying in front of people. But I'm glad that I was able to express that moment. I guess it shows that I'm human.

"I guess athletes in general just experience things, and we show emotion, good and bad. I think a lot of people see the more pumping up side of me, the more fiery side.”

The fiery side. The teary side. Seven days ago, Cori Gauff had arrived at the US Open as a young hopeful. Shortly before 10:00 p.m. this evening, nearly 12 hours to the minute of Gauff’s arrival in Arthur Ashe Stadium, she exited, on the path to something else.

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