WHAT HAPPENED: Four American teens took the court for an opening round doubles match at the 2020 US Open.
Hailey Baptiste, 18, was a US Open juniors finalist in 2018, while her partner Whitney Osuigwe, also 18, has an even more impressive track record: she was the World No. 1 junior, after winning the French Open girls’ title at age 15, when she became the first American to earn the crown since Jennifer Capriati in 1989. As a pro, Osuigwe even reached the second round in Flushing Meadows one year ago.
Across the net, Caty McNally, also 18, was the 2018 girls' doubles champion at Roland Garros and the US Open. She already has two singles titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour. In doubles, she reached the US Open third round and the quarterfinals in Melbourne earlier this year.
And then there's the 16-year-old Coco Gauff, with whom McNally won that junior title and has shared the doubles success on the pro tour. Gauff’s meteoric rise in media attention comes from her singles play, notably her run to the fourth round at Wimbledon last year and the third round in New York. But she has remained committed to doubles too—a good thing at this year’s tournament because Gauff lost in singles on opening day at the 2020 US Open.
Under the lights of Court 5, Gauff double faulted in the first game but then righted herself, she and her teammate gradually upping the aggressiveness of their play—Gauff with power and athleticism, McNally with great hands— to break back and even the match at 3-3. McNally consolidated that with a love service game that she punctuated with an ace.
With Osuigwe and Bautiste winning less than 40 percent of their second serve points, McNally and Gauff began going for even more on the first serve points and up 6-5 they finally put it all together, with Gauff hitting two winners from the net in the last three points as they raced from 15-15 to first set victors.
They carried that momentum into the second set, pummeling the ball at every opportunity. In the fourth game of the second set there was a brief technical glitch with the Hawkeye system calling all the shots but the Gauff/McNally team were anything but distracted, breaking their opponents at love. Gauff consolidated with a big serving game to put her team up 4-1 and the duo quickly broke again, moments later, Gauff and McNally were 7-5, 6-1 winners.
WHAT IT MEANS: Gauff showed resilience after a disappointing performance in singles and a rough start tonight. That combined with her athleticism and power and the well-oiled teamwork with the equally impressive McNally gives the duo a chance to make a deep run in the 2020 US Open.
MATCH POINT: At the Western & Southern Open last week, Gauff/McNally won the first set of their second round match but then stumbled against Nicole Melichar and Yifan Xu. That duo is the third seed at the US Open and the next likely opponent for the terrific teens.
