Coco Gauff will not defend her title at the Linz Open, which kicked off on November 7th. The tournament is expected to be the last official WTA sanctioned competition in 2020. The event in Austria was originally scheduled to take place in October, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers pushed back the initial date as they moved to fulfill the WTA’s safety protocols. While Gauff’s absence at the Linz Open will disappoint many fans, the American tennis star had some valid reasons to skip the event.
Since Gauff is only 16-years-old, she is still subject to the strict WTA rules that protect players under the age of 18 from competing in too many professional tournaments. Last year, Gauff was only eligible to play 12 competitions on tour. Once she turned 16 on March 13th, the number of tournaments she was eligible to play in increased to 16, and she will be eligible to play more tournaments after her next birthday. Gauff has already competed at the Cincinnati Masters, the Italian Open, the US and French Open as well the Ostrava Open last month. The young tennis star may have chosen to skip the Linz Open so that she could preserve her eligibility for several high-profile tennis tournaments scheduled in early 2021 such as the Australian Open.
The 16-year-old star recently attained a career-high position on the WTA rankings
Despite her limited playing time in 2020, Gauff recently rose to a career-high 47th position in the recently released WTA rankings. The American star had an incredible run at the Linz Open last year to win her first singles title. Gauff defeated former French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko in the final, and she had a high profile win over Kiki Bertens in the quarterfinals. At 15-years, Gauff became the second-youngest American player to ever win a WTA tournament. Tracy Austin holds the record of the youngest champion with her 1977 win at the Portland Open when she was 14 years old. In addition to her on-court success, Gauff has also used her platform to speak out about issues of social justice.
After the death of George Floyd in May, she released a powerful video to condemn the incident and urged her fans to speak out against racial inequality. In the video clip, Gauff posted pictures of several African-American victims of police brutality, before appearing in a black hoodie and rhetorically asking whether she would the next victim. Tennis fans have praised the 16-year-old tennis star for using her platform to speak out on social issues despite her young age. Even though she will not get an opportunity to defend her title at the Linz Open, Gauff should be proud of her achievements in 2020.
Cori Gauff in 2020
At the moment ranked no.47 (career-high), Cori played her last match on the 22nd of October when she surrendered to Aryna Sabalenka 1-6 7-5 7-62 in the 2nd round in Ostrava.
Cori Gauff’s best result of the present season was reaching the semi-finals in Lexington.
