Sports
Coco Gauff wants to win a Grand Slam in 2023
Coco Gauff, who shot to fame by reaching the Wimbledon last 16 as a 15-year-old in 2019 said that her main ambition for 2023 was winning a Grand Slam title. “Starting another season as an established pro feels pretty weird. I’m still only 18 but I don’t feel like the new kid any more,” the American said in her sports column for BBC yesterday. Following is Gauff’s column which appeared yesterday.
I feel I’m ready to leave behind the tag of ‘teenage phenomenon’. Now it is time to be known as a Grand Slam champion. I feel like all the players still call me a baby, and usually, I’m still one of the youngest in the draw, but I’ve been around for a while.
My main ambition for 2023 is winning a Grand Slam title. That’s the biggest goal. It is something I have chased for my whole life and I came so close last year by reaching the French Open final. If winning a major doesn’t happen this year, I will continue to chase this dream.
Last season was great for me. I broke into the top five of the world rankings in both the singles and doubles, as well as reaching both finals at Roland Garros. Even though I lost in the singles to Iga Swiatek, it gave me a lot of confidence in my game and myself.
I know I can win a Grand Slam title. Now it is about making the final step. I just need to fine-tune some details and I worked hard in pre-season to do that. I really think that I had probably one of the best off-seasons I have had. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of long days. But I’ve improved my game a lot.
One of my other goals was to win a WTA Tour title – I didn’t do that last year – and I have already that checked off by winning in Auckland last week. The signs are good and hopefully this success continues throughout the season. In the moments after I lost to Iga at Roland Garros, I hid beneath my towel and cried.
When you’re in a match, you don’t feel it is over until it is over. Then all the emotion hits you. Although I was losing for the majority of the time in the match, I still felt I had a chance until the end. Actually, it was almost a relief when it was over.
There was a lot of pressure building up to that and I was the most nervous I have been for a match in my life. Everybody says you don’t know how you’re going to feel in a Grand Slam final unless you experience it. All the other players who said that are completely right.
No matter how many finals you play at other tournaments, there is no amount of preparation you can do for that feeling of being in a major final. You can’t replicate it. It is every tennis player’s dream to win a Grand Slam and I guess when you realise how close your dream is, it brings a lot of emotions.
One person who knows this experience is Mary Joe Fernandez. She played three Grand Slam finals – including two here in Melbourne – and I’ve spoken a lot to her about how she felt. She was telling me she regretted that everyone was telling her before the first final ‘oh, you’re young and you will play in plenty more finals’.
Instead, she told me to play every one like it is my last. It was great advice. You have to presume you won’t get that experience again and that is the right thing to tell someone. You don’t know where life will take you.
I don’t know if I will play another Grand Slam final or not. I certainly hope so.But Mary Joe’s advice changed my perception on the experience and I hope I do make another one so I can take her words and do something with it.
A lot of BBC Sport readers will remember how I burst onto the scene at Wimbledon in 2019 – it was a crazy, crazy tournament, but I really enjoyed what happened. I didn’t realise how big a deal it was until maybe a year later because I was just living my life in the moment. Because I was so young and fresh on the scene, I also had no idea what players should look like going on to the tour as a 15-year-old.
Obviously it is not standard to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam! It is usually a slower progression. When I think back and reflect on that time, it was like living in a movie. It went by so fast. It felt like a dream – one where you can’t tell if it was real or not – and like it didn’t happen in real life.
Having that success at such a young age created a lot of pressure – but it was good pressure. People were saying good things about me, wanting me to do good things. Now I hope I can live up to that by having success at the Grand Slams in 2023.
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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