Coco Gauff and Venus Williams fell of their first-round doubles match on the French Open on Wednesday.
Taking part in Ellen Perez and Saisai Zheng, the match’s No. 13 seeds, in entrance of a energetic crowd on Court docket 9, the pair received a tiebreak to take the primary set however in the end misplaced 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3.
The match lasted over two hours, and Gauff and Williams embraced at its conclusion earlier than congratulating their opponents. It was the primary match collectively for the 40-year previous Williams and the 17-year previous Gauff. They performed twice earlier than in singles, with Gauff profitable each matches, together with a memorable first-round match at Wimbledon in 2019. Gauff has lengthy praised Williams for being one in every of her childhood idols.
The duo teamed up following an damage to Gauff’s normal doubles accomplice, Caty McNally, in singles qualifying final week. In response to Gauff, her father, Corey, who can also be her coach, reached out to Williams’ crew shortly earlier than the entry deadline.
“I wasn’t anticipating a sure, to be trustworthy,” stated Gauff. “It was definitely worth the ask. I’m joyful she stated sure.”
Williams stated she was excited concerning the pairing throughout a information convention on Tuesday.
“She’s so extraordinarily proficient that I’ll undoubtedly expect her to do all of the work,” Williams stated of Gauff.
The followers chanted “U-S-A” and sang quite a lot of songs, together with “Born in the united statesA.” and “Lady on Fireplace,” to encourage the pair all through the match.
Williams has received 14 main doubles titles, together with two on the French Open, all with sister Serena Williams. The siblings most just lately received collectively at Wimbledon in 2016. Gauff has reached the doubles quarterfinals twice at Grand Slams throughout her profession, together with at this 12 months’s Australian Open. Gauff had stated she was wanting ahead to enjoying alongside such an skilled winner in Williams.
“It’s going to be tremendous thrilling,” Gauff stated on Tuesday. “For me, I like enjoying doubles, and hopefully I can decide up some issues from her. She clearly has so many Grand Slams in doubles, and I need to win Grand Slams in singles and doubles.”
Gauff received her first-round singles match on Tuesday and faces Qiang Wang on Thursday. Williams misplaced her singles opener in opposition to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-1.
Perez and Zheng will subsequent play the winners of the match between Gabriela Dabrowski/Leylah Fernandez and Georgina Garcia Perez/Julia Wachaczyk.
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