US Open Second Service: Coco Gauff to become youngest top 10 pro in 16 years as Wilander and Corretja hail ‘miraculous’ Nadal season
Looking back on the big news in our exclusive ‘US Open Second Service’… Coco Gauff is set to become the youngest top 10 player since 2006 as Mats Wilander and Alex Corretja hail Nadal’s ‘miraculous’ season plus more…
To start, it’s been confirmed that Coco Gauff will become the youngest American woman since Serena Williams to break into the WTA top 10 with her US Open run, and the youngest woman outright since 2006.
She will be the youngest woman in the top 10 since 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova made her debut there in August 2006, when Gauff was herself just two years old. She will be the youngest American woman to debut in the WTA top 10 since Serena Williams did in April 1999 at the age of 17 years and 191 days old.
Gauff also currently sits sixth in the official race to the WTA Finals, though she is up at fourth in the live race at time of publication behind world number Iga Swiatek, Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur and compatriot Jessica Pegula.
Seven-time Slam champion Mats Wilander and two-time Major finalist Alex Corretja have both reiterated just how improbable the 2022 results of Rafael Nadal have been after his US Open campaign came to an end in the fourth round.
âWe have to remember though that Rafa hasnât played enough tennis,â Corretja told Eurosport after the Spaniard crashed out of the American Slam. âIt is a miracle that he has won two Slams this year and reaching the semis at Wimbledon.
Wilander, who himself won the US Open back in 1988, agreed with his colleague, saying: â[Nadal] didnât play too many matches during the summer time and he needs a little more confidence in the matches.
Read what else they had to say here.Â
Jannik Sinner has become the youngest man to reach at least the quarter-finals of all four Major tournaments since Novak Djokovic in 2008 after making it to the last eight of the US Open for the very first time.
The 21-year-old Italian defeated Belarusian talent Ilya Ivashka in a five-set thriller 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to set a meeting with fellow young star Carlos Alcaraz and a shot at a first Slam semi-final.
After reaching his first Major quarter-final at the 2020 French Open, Sinner has now reached the same stage of the other three Slams, all in 2022. The last man who achieved the feat at a younger age was a 20-year-old Djokovic after he made it that far or further at each Slam from the 2007 French Open to the 2008 Australian Open, where the Serb claimed his maiden Slam title.
Read what he had to say about it here.
And to finish off, Carlos Alcaraz has ensured that he will enjoy a new career-high ranking of at least third in the world after making it to the quarter-finals of the US Open for the second time.
âI believe in myself all the time,â Alcaraz said in his post-match interview after downing Cilic in the early hours on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Any of Nadal, Alcaraz or Ruud could be world number one after the US Open.
It will be Nadal if neither of Alcaraz or Ruud reach the championship match. Otherwise, if Alcaraz wins the title or loses in the final to someone besides Ruud, he will top the rankings.
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