American tennis prodigy Cori Gauff has said that she is ‘pretty sure’ her triumph at the Orange Bowl over the weekend will be her last taste of junior competition.
The 14-year-old dropped only one set on route to claiming the under 18s title at the prestigious Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship. A Grade A junior tournament that have been previously won by Caroline Wozniacki, Anett Kontaveit and Ana Konjuh. Gauff defeated China’s Qinwen Zheng 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, to become the youngest winner of the tournament since Nicole Vaidisova back in 2003.
“My dad told me at the beginning of the tournament, ‘This is probably your last junior tournament, so play how you want to be remembered,’” Gauff said. “And that’s how I was thinking. People mostly know me to always fight, and even when I was down, I was like, ‘That’s how I want to be remembered,’ at least in junior tennis, and see what the next chapter has for me.”
Few can dispute the talent of the Atlanta-born player. Despite her young age, she has already won two junior grand slam titles. Claiming the singles title at the French Open in June followed by a doubles trophy at the US Open. Presently, she is the second highest ranked junior player after France’s Clara Burel, who is three years older than her.
“I want to be a good professional player,” she stated. “Next year, my goal is to be top-100 in WTA [Women’s Tennis Association].”
Gauff, who turns 15 in March, is currently ranked 869th on the professional circuit. She is currently the only player to have a WTA ranking at the age of 14. Gauff made her professional debut in May at an ITF $25,000 event in Osprey, Florida. Since then, she has played in three ITF events, winning two main draw matches. The teenager also had the chance to play in the qualifying rounds at the US Open, but lost in the first round to Heather Watson.
Despite her ambitions for the future, Gauff will be limited to how many WTA tournaments she can play on the tour in 2019 due to the ‘age eligibility rule.’ Known by some as the ‘Capriati rule’ it was implemented in 1995 to help prevent players getting burn-outs at a young age. Capriati reached the top 10 in the world at the age of 14, but experienced a series of off-court issues later in her career.
Gauff plans to start 2019 by playing a series of ‘ITF World Tennis Tour 25’ events.
