Coco Gauff heads to Aus Open as teenage Grand Slam champion

Melbourne: Now that the pressure to win a Grand Slam singles title as a teenager is over, Coco Gauff feels liberated enough to discuss her next target: a career tally in double digits.

Could be 10, 11 or more ... no limits. Plus, an Olympic medal in Paris this year. Preferably gold, but silver or bronze would do in singles, doubles or mixed. She’s entering the Australian Open as a reigning Grand Slam champion, new territory for the 19-year-old American. Had she not fulfilled those expectations at last year’s US Open, this would have been her last shot at being a teenage major winner.

Gauff, who turns 20 in March, believes she can play with more freedom now in pursuit of a second major title as the No. 4 seeded player at Melbourne Park.

The tournament starts on Sunday, a day earlier than usual. Defending champion Novak Djokovic, aiming for a recording-extending 11th Australian

title and 25th overall, announced ahead of the schedule’s release that he’d be playing Sunday night the first of three first-round night sessions.

Gauff’s first-round match is against Anna Karolina Schmeiedlova, a 29-year-old from Slovakia who has only been past the third round once in 35 majors. Having rebounded from a shocking first-round exit at Wimbledon to winning a breakthrough major title at the very next major in New York has helped with a shift in mindset.

“I think I put too much pressure on winning a Slam. I think I was feeling like I have to do it,” Gauff said.

“When I went on the scene at 15, I felt like I had to win a Slam as a teenager because that’s what everybody

thought.”agencies