TENNIS INSIDE OUT
Coco GauffDanielle CollinsDayana YastremskaFernando VerdascoKaren KhachanovMagdalena RybarikovaNick KyrgiosRafael NadalStan WawrinkaThomas FabbianoTIO Featured 2

Wimbledon Day 3 — Not Fakin’ It

Val and J.D.
Coco Gauff second round press conference Wimbledon 2019

The third day of Wimbledon brought us three retirements, four 5-setters, six 4-setters, four 3-setters on the ladies’ side, and only two bagel sets. Another 5 seeds fell, the highest being #12 Anastasija Sevastova.

Though seed-slayers Hurkacz, Humbert, Fabbiano, Vesely, and Zhang backed up their first-round upsets with another win, the player that made the biggest follow-up splash was someone who hadn’t even beaten a seed in the first round.

A Star Is Born

As you may remember from Wimby Day 1, though, the player in question is 15-year-old American Coco Gauff. After taking out five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in round one, she backed it up today with a solid victory against 2017 Wimby semifinalist, Magdalena Rybarikova.

Generally we here at Tennis Inside Out are wary of the hype over younger players, and Coco is even younger than the usual “TOTALLY WILL WIN EVERYTHING” anointee . However, we gotta say, watching the match against Rybarikova was to witness something pretty darn special.

Hollywood types always talk about the “It” factor, that often undefinable aura that makes people sit up and take notice. Coco has the tennis version of that. She is just so smooth and weightless on the court, her form so flawless — her service motion the studied, elegant perfection of a veteran star player rather than the sort of jangly collection of nervous energy you’d expect from a teen who prepared for the match by watching YouTube shows you’ve never heard of.

Her press conference is as intriguing to watch as the match was, with subtle vacillations between careful, thoughtful responses about her efforts and ambitions on court and then the youthful “starstruck” glee over getting DMs from celebs.

Our personal favorite moment is when asked (by WTA’s Courtney Nguyen, we believe) whether she felt like she was redlining it on court this week or if this is her natural comfort level, Gauff said she felt comfortable and credited a change in mindset:

“I don’t think it was so much how many balls I hit in practice, it was more off court, thinking ‘how can I improve myself, improve how I act on the court?’ And it’s definitely been a challenge, but I think I’ve kind of reached the–basically, almost–best mentality I can get to.

I mean, you always can improve, but right now I’m just, I feel like the way I’m acting and the way I kind of feel inside… You can kinda fake it ’til you make it, but…I’m not fakin’ it. (laughs) At least not right now.”

Twist of Fortune

Another all-American clash starring Coco Gauff was thwarted by Polona Hercog. The unseeded Slovenian, who reached the R16 at both Eastbourne and Den Bosch, got grass revenge at Wimby for a straight sets clay loss in Rome–to Madison Keys.

Whoever wins the Gauff / Hercog battle gets to move on to….either Halep or Azarenka. But lets not amp up everyone in the tennis world just yet–lots of tennis to be played before the hype gets EVER BIGGER.

The American ladies are getting scarcer as the week progresses, with Brengle going out to Muchova and Kenin losing a tough scorcher of a match against teenager Dayana Yastremska.

Yastremska gets Swiss player Viktorija Golubic next, since Yulia Putinseva couldn’t back up her impressive victory over Naomi Osaka in the first round.

Meanwhile, Danielle Collins was taking her turn upsetting a seed today, in a topsy-turvy match with Anastasija Sevastova.

(For added drama, Dani was also up 4-0 in the third until Ana fought her way back up to 3-4 in the fading light. Dani wrestled for control just in time, for another break and the match.)

There Are Not Enough Crying Emojis

After a rough double knee surgery, it’s taken quite some time for the Swiss player to find the full-flight #Stanimal — but he’s finally peaking again. So, the draw gods throw him a line-up at the French Open containing Garin, Tsitsipas, Dimitrov and lifelong nemesis Federer. As JMac would say…

Now at Wimby, Stan wins sublimely in straights in the first round only to get American tree Reilly Opelka, who chooses this day to go all GOAT tree on Stan. If our Swiss crumpet somehow HAD managed to win this soul-crushing servebot experience, his reward would have likely been Raonic in the next round followed by Anderson. I mean…… *unprintable livid exclamations*

At least we got this….

Surely Stan the Man needs to be allowed to kick some serious ass at the US Open, right? RIGHT?????

Stirring the Pot

So, the big DRAMAZ planned for tomorrow is the Nadal / Kyrgios match and well….some things have happen-ed….

So….no telling what we’ll get tomorrow:

  • A) A screamer of a match that totally lives up to the hype
  • B) A total dumpster fire
  • C) A total dumpster fire that totally lives up to the hype

WHAT ELSE?

In a battle of the fearhands, Nando came back from two sets down to win in five over hometown fave Kyle Edmund.

(Article continues below.)

Hot Legs Khachanov came back from a set down to win in four over the Man Who Goes Commando On Grass, Feli Lopez.

That’s a wrap for Day 3 of Wimbledon! Want to move on to DAY 4??

Do you want to catch up on Day 2? Or Day 1?

Please use the share buttons if you enjoyed this post! Thank you, and feel free to subscribe to our site so you don’t miss a thing–just head up to the top of the right sidebar and enter your email address!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.