Gauff, Cori (2004- )

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      What to Watch at The French Open on Wednesday

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      Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek all feature on the second day of quarterfinals at Roland Garros.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on the Tennis Channel, streaming on Tennis Channel Plus.Iga Swiatek is the only player remaining in the women’s draw who has previously reached the final of a Grand Slam event. Swiatek, the defending champion, is still the favorite to win the tournament, but the inspired performances of those left in the draw means that it won’t be easy for her to reach the women’s singles final on Saturday.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Phillipe Chatrier Court | 5 a.m.Coco Gauff vs. Barbora KrejcikovaBarbora Krejcikova, the world No. 33, is primarily a doubles specialist, having won two Grand Slam tournament events and reached at least the semifinals on six other occasions. After a fourth-round breakout in singles at the French Open last year, Krejcikova has bettered her performance once again, by outmaneuvering opponents who focus on the power of their shots.Coco Gauff, the 24th seed, has secured a spot on the U.S. Olympic tennis team and is now playing in her first major quarterfinal. She has often impressed with her mental strength and has improved her point construction over the past few years. This match promises to be tactically astute, and a good lesson for any tennis player on how to play patiently.Iga Swiatek after winning her fourth-round match against Marta Kostyuk on Monday.Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersPhillipe Chatrier Court | 7 a.m.Iga Swiatek vs. Maria SakkariIga Swiatek, the eighth seed and the defending champion, has barnstormed back into the quarterfinals at Roland Garros without dropping a set, an impressive show of consistency from the 20-year-old.Maria Sakkari, the 17th seed, has reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal after an impressive upset over last year’s finalist, Sofia Kenin. Sakkari’s powerful baseline shots can unsettle even the steadiest players, and Swiatek will need to counter with some inventive play.Rafael Nadal has looked unstoppable at this year’s French Open.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesPhillipe Chatrier Court | 9 a.m.Rafael Nadal vs. Diego SchwartzmanDiego Schwartzman, the 10th seed, has not dropped a set on his way to the quarterfinals. The clay court specialist reached the semifinals of the French Open last year but lost to Rafael Nadal in straight sets.Nadal, a 13-time French Open champion, has once again looked like an unstoppable force. However, a change in style has become clear this year. When he was younger, Nadal won matches on clay by slowly grinding his opponents down. He has switched to more aggressive points, putting shots away and coming to the net more quickly. This style has won him 35 straight sets over the past couple of years, and it seems likely that he will continue to cruise through to the next round.Novak Djokovic had to fight back from two sets down during his fourth-round match against Lorenzo Musetti on Monday.Ian Langsdon/EPA, via ShutterstockPhillipe Chatrier Court | 2 p.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Matteo BerrettiniNovak Djokovic, the first seed, was pushed by Lorenzo Musetti to five sets in his round of 16 match. Djokovic lost the first two sets in tight tiebreakers as Musetti played an inspired stretch of tennis before Djokovic rallied, losing only one game before Musetti retired in the fifth set.Matteo Berrettini, the ninth seed, had a bit of luck, getting a walkover as Roger Federer withdrew from the French Open ahead of their round of 16 match. Now, well rested, Berrettini will be trying to take the initiative and draw on his striking power to push Djokovic to the edge of his capabilities. More

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      In Paris, Coco Gauff Is Confident, Consistent, and Off to the Quarterfinals

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      The 17-year-old, the last American player in singles, will face Barbora Krejcikova in her first Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal on Wednesday.PARIS — It was Coco Gauff’s first appearance on the main stage at the French Open, and it was not the classic Parisian scene she had imagined with fewer than 100 fans in the stands at Court Philippe-Chatrier for the opening matches in this pandemic period of limited crowds.But Gauff’s performance was dreamy: a resounding 6-3, 6-1 victory in the fourth round over the 25th-seeded Tunisian veteran Ons Jabeur, a drop-shot artiste who, in theory, loves clay more than Gauff and had beaten her on the surface earlier this year.But Gauff, the gifted American teenager, has shifted into a higher gear since then, improving her consistency and growing more confident after reaching the semifinals of the Italian Open last month and winning both a singles and doubles title in Parma, Italy. You could see the belief in her body language on Monday as she patrolled the red clay, setting a measured pace between points and playing with power, depth and precision once the rallies began.At age 17, she is into her first Grand Slam quarterfinal and is the last American remaining in singles after Sofia Kenin’s 6-1, 6-3 loss in the fourth round to Maria Sakkari and Sloane Stephens’s 6-2, 6-0 loss to Barbora Krejcikova.The 24th-seeded Gauff, who will face the unseeded Krejcikova on Wednesday, has not dropped a set in Paris. Against Jabeur, she did not face so much as a break point and made just nine unforced errors and zero double faults.“Sooner or later, she will win her first Grand Slam title,” Jabeur said.Such comments, however sincere, can be problematic with young talents like Gauff. Focus too much on what she could do, and it is easy to not fully appreciate what she is doing now.So, let’s consider what other aspiring tennis stars her age are achieving. No other women’s player under the age of 18 is ranked in the top 300. Gauff is on the verge of breaking into the top 20 and has locked up an Olympics singles spot.“I just feel this is the most consistent tennis I have played at this level,” Gauff said. “Hopefully I can keep that going.”Gauff believes she’s playing the most consistent tennis of her young career.Ian Langsdon/EPA, via ShutterstockAfter reaching the fourth round of both her first Wimbledon appearance in 2019 and her first Australian Open in 2020, she has now made the final eight in her second French Open.She was asked to compare her mind-set during Monday’s match with her previous fourth-round matches at majors.“To be honest, I think I was just more hungry for it,” she said. “I feel like in the past I felt like I was satisfied with the run I made in the tournament, so maybe I feel like I came into the matches I guess not as hungry, and I know it’s probably not a good thing to say, but it’s the truth. But I think with a lot of young players we tend to get satisfied with just, you know, the small results, not small results but certain results before we realize that we can really shoot for more. My message has always been: Dream big and aim higher.”Gauff has wanted to be No. 1 with a career like Serena Williams’s since her early teens, but her Wimbledon breakthrough at age 15 did not point her straight to the top.Her last visit to Roland Garros in September 2020 was a reminder of the difficulty of the challenge. She lost in the second round to the Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan while making 19 double faults. Gauff has indeed found a better rhythm in recent weeks. “That’s obviously been a hurdle in my game,” she said. “I truly feel like I’m, you know, getting over that hurdle.”She has also shored up her forehand, cutting down on the errors on that less reliable wing and regularly doing great damage with it in midcourt and in extension. She continues to be comfortable at the net, something her father and coach Corey Gauff has long emphasized.“I mean at the end of the day, she’s basically a junior in high school,” Corey Gauff said. “And anybody knows in high school you are still developing and learning so there’s a big growth between 15 and 16 and more big growth between 16 and 17. She just has the uniqueness of growing up on tour and on TV, so every time she does something it’s news, and everybody is watching everything she’s doing. But she’s just developing, and she’s developing actually pretty quickly and playing more matches this year compared to 2020, where she played so few matches, is really helping her develop.”The tour’s five-month hiatus last year was both a burden and a blessing, isolating for a teenager but also a chance to work on improving her weaknesses outside the spotlight. But Corey Gauff said Coco struggled mentally when the tour resumed because of the restrictions.“This year is better,” Corey Gauff said. “Last year was tough. You could see that it was weighing on her. She was ranked high enough that she was more in the senior hotel, and her friends weren’t in that hotel. And the restrictions were much stricter last year than now. You literally just went to the court and came back and that wasn’t a lot of fun for her. It showed up in her tennis, too. She just wasn’t happy, wasn’t as excited being in the bubbles last year.”They are back in the same Paris hotel as in last year’s French Open, back to playing the card game Uno in the evenings, but now able to spend an hour outside the bubble daily. Though Coco has not yet been vaccinated, Corey Gauff said he and his wife Candi have been, which alleviates some concern and testing regimens.“That hour outside the bubble makes a world of difference,” he said.Candi Gauff was not traveling with her husband and daughter earlier in the clay-court season, but she has joined them for Roland Garros, leaving the Gauffs’ two younger sons at home in Delray Beach, Fla., with grandparents. “It’s nice to have her here,” Coco Gauff said. Corey Gauff said that Coco benefits from her mother’s presence and also her expertise. Candi Gauff was a hurdler and heptathlete at Florida State.“She needs her mom,” he said. “Teenage girls need their mother, because those are the ones who help them become young women and help them deal with things and pressures and of course my wife was a world-class athlete, so she understands the pressures and the discipline and preparation and proper nutrition and all the physiology that goes with it. It’s better her mom telling her than her dad telling her.”Iga Swiatek, the defending champion and eighth seed, remains the rightful favorite in Paris and is in Gauff’s half of the draw. Swiatek beat Gauff en route to the Italian Open title, and they could meet again in the semifinals if Gauff defeats Krejcikova and Swiatek defeats Sakkari.Whatever happens next at Roland Garros, Gauff is making progress even if she still prefers hardcourts and grass to clay.“Only thing about clay I don’t like, it’s just whenever you fall you just get all dirty,” she told me.But there were no tumbles or stumbles on Monday on the most important clay court in the world. More

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      2021 French Open: What to Watch on Saturday

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      Iga Swiatek, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic feature on Court Philippe-Chatrier on the second day of third round action.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time on the Tennis Channel, noon to 2 p.m. on NBC and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Peacock; streaming on the Tennis Channel+ and Peacock apps.It is difficult to ignore the fact that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will all be playing on Saturday afternoon in Paris. As appealing a draw as they might be, against three unseeded players, there are minuscule chances for upsets as the “Big Three” march forward.Direct your attention to the women’s draw; packed with exceptional matches from dawn on the East Coast until dusk in Paris. Although last year’s champion, Iga Swiatek, will be the main focus, plenty of other contests are sure to entertain.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Suzanne Lenglen Court | 8 a.m.Sofia Kenin vs. Jessica PegulaSofia Kenin, the fourth seed, has had a pair of tough matches to start at Roland Garros. The former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko was an early test in the first round. Kenin reached the final last year but lost at the Australian Open in the second round earlier this year. Now, with a couple of wins under her belt, it seems that Kenin is regaining the confidence necessary to push into the second week of the French Open.Jessica Pegula, the 28th seed, has had an excellent run of form this year. She reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in February, recording a pair of upsets over Victoria Azarenka and Elina Svitolina along the way. In the past few months, she has also recorded multiple victories over Karolina Plíšková and Naomi Osaka. With this in mind, Pegula will feel she is well matched to challenge Kenin, even though Kenin came out victorious in their match earlier this year.Rafael Nadal returns the ball to France’s Richard Gasquet during their second round match.Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSuzanne Lenglen Court | 10 a.m.Rafael Nadal vs. Cameron NorrieCameron Norrie, ranked No. 45, has had a breakout year. He has reached the third round of a Grand Slam event in three of his past four attempts and reached the final of two clay court events in May. This run will push him into the top 40 for the first time in his career, but Rafael Nadal is likely to end Norrie’s French Open.Nadal, the 13-time French Open champion, has won 102 of his 104 matches played on the grounds of Roland Garros. It’s a stunning statistic, even without considering the caliber of players that he has battled against throughout the years. He has once again looked dominant, not dropping a set on his way to the third round. For the time being, there doesn’t seem to be any challenger worth discussing as a successor for Nadal, and it makes his march to the final an almost foregone conclusion.Coco Gauff playing a forehand during her second round match.Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesSuzanne Lenglen Court | 1 p.m.Coco Gauff vs. Jennifer BradyJennifer Brady, the 13th seed, needed steely determination to push through her second round match against Fiona Ferro. Brady was down a break on two occasions in the final set, but she managed to fight back, using her powerful forehand strokes to force Ferro around the court. The match took over two hours, and it will be interesting to see whether Brady can bring that same energy into her next challenge against talented Coco Gauff.Gauff, the 24th seed, has slowly been establishing herself as a serious contender on the WTA Tour. After breakout performances at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 2019, Gauff had a quiet 2020 season, but she is now working her way up the rankings. Although she has lost her only match against Brady, Gauff’s game has progressed well since then, and she will be confident that she can edge out an upset in this competitive matchup.Court 14 | 7 a.m.Jannik Sinner vs. Mikael YmerJannik Sinner, the 18th seed, is at the lead of an Italian renaissance in tennis. The 19-year-old reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2020, and the finals of the Miami Open, a masters level event, earlier this year. Although he has looked slightly inconsistent on clay over the past few months, there have been shining moments, even in defeat to some of the best players on the tour. If he can settle into matches early and try to control them from the start, anything could be possible.Mikael Ymer, ranked No. 105, upset the 14th seed, Gael Monfils, in the second round over four sets. Ymer has begun to show serious results in 2021, reaching the third round at the Australian Open and now again at Roland Garros. Ymer’s hard-striking baseline game is not particularly well suited to clay, but his athleticism can help him overcome deficiencies in his play on any given day.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Sloane Stephens vs. Karolina Muchová; Simonne-Mathieu Court, 5 a.m.Elina Svitolina vs. Barbora Krejčíková; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 6 a.m.Novak Djokovic vs. Ričardas Berankis; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 8 a.m.Ons Jabeur vs. Magda Linette; Court 14, 10 a.m.Iga Swiatek vs. Anett Kontaveit; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 11 a.m.Roger Federer vs. Dominik Koepfer; Philippe-Chatrier Court, 3 p.m. More

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      Coco Gauff Wins Two Titles in One Day

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      A rare double championship made for a great day on clay. It also was a good sign for Gauff a week before the French Open.It had been a year and a half since Coco Gauff won a tennis title. On Saturday, she won two in only a few hours.Gauff, the 17-year-old from Delray Beach, Fla., secured the singles title first, defeating Wang Qiang, 6-1, 6-3, with a poised and powerful performance at the WTA Tour’s Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy.After a trophy ceremony and a short rest, Gauff returned to center court with her doubles partner, Caty McNally, and won that title, too, rebounding from a slow start to defeat Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepac, 6-3, 6-2.“Two titles in one day — not bad,” Gauff said as she thanked her father and coach, Corey, and the rest of her team. Her victories came just over a week before the start of the French Open in Paris.The education of Gauff as a tennis player continues, and she has been a star student on Europe’s red clay so far this spring. After defeating Maria Sakkari and Aryna Sabalenka earlier this month to reach the semifinals of the Italian Open in Rome, Gauff traveled north to Parma to play in a new WTA 250 event where Serena Williams, a late wild-card entry, was the main attraction.But Williams, 39, lost to Katerina Siniakova in the second round, and showed that she was still struggling to find her fitness and her form. Gauff, meanwhile, won five straight matches to collect her second WTA singles title.The first came indoors in Linz, Austria, in October 2019, when she was still 15 and won a tough three-set final against Jelena Ostapenko.“I feel like in Linz I was really nervous closing the match, and I hadn’t been in that moment before,” she said when asked to compare her emotions after each victory. “Linz was definitely more a sigh of relief, because I think I was up in that third set and lost a couple of games before I was able to close it out. Whereas here, I said I was just going to go for it and trust myself and trust my decisions, and that’s why I felt like here it felt more like it was meant to be and not relief.”Gauff will be ranked 25th on Monday, a new career high. That guarantees her a seeding for the first time in a Grand Slam tournament when the French Open begins on May 30.“I feel really good about going into the French, and I hope I can continue to build and get better,” said Gauff, who beat McNally to win the French Open girls’ championship in 2018. “I have a week and a day to get ready. I feel like I’m hitting good, moving good. My body feels good, my mentality. Emotionally I feel good, so I think it will be a good tournament for me.”Gauff did not have to deal with the WTA elite this week in Parma. She faced no players ranked in the world’s top 30, and no former major champions. Her highest-ranked opponent was No. 40 Amanda Anisimova, a powerful but erratic American whom Gauff defeated, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals before beating Siniakova in three sets and China’s Wang in a hurry.Wang, 29, had thrived in long rallies throughout the week, defeating Petra Martic and Sloane Stephens in tight matches. But she struggled from the start to control the flow of play against the fast and consistent Gauff.“She’s a very good player now, and she can be a really great player,” Wang said.That remains the consensus on Gauff. She became a star in a hurry by reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon, her first Grand Slam tournament, in 2019. But she has not rocketed quickly to the very top like the former prodigies Monica Seles and Martina Hingis.The pandemic has certainly been a factor. Gauff did not play a tournament for more than six months in 2020, and she then lost in the first round of the United States Open and the second round of the rescheduled French Open when she did return.Though her two-handed backhand and her court coverage remain her strengths, her serve and her forehand have been question marks. She has shored up the forehand and has been increasingly effective pouncing on short balls and hitting winners with that stroke. But double faults have been a recurring issue. Last month, she had 13 in a straight-sets loss to Ons Jabeur in the quarterfinals of an event in Charleston, S.C., and 12 more in a three-set defeat to Karolina Pliskova in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open.Those are big, disquieting numbers. The serving yips can be daunting to overcome, particularly in tight matches with Grand Slam titles on the line. But Gauff, with less at stake, served well through the pressure in Rome and Parma.Against Wang, she hit six double faults, but none came at critical junctures, and she did not lose a game on her serve.“That feels good,” she said. “The serve is something I’ve been working on a lot, and I can still improve on it.”Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion who is coaching Wang, agreed that Gauff’s serve needed work — “Sometimes she gets a bit too much spin on it,” he said — but after sitting courtside in Parma on Saturday, he said he liked her chances of playing well in Paris.“I don’t think she’s going to be that far off at the French,” Cash said. “I think Coco can get frustrated with the ball coming back time and time again. She over-hits at times, and that’s what we were hoping she would do today. We were hoping to frustrate her, but she hit God knows how many lines, baselines and sidelines, with power.“I was very impressed with her speed, and she’s a strong girl. She was a pretty skinny little thing a couple years ago, but she’s very strong on the stretch. That’s where it really counts.”Cash continued: “When she is pushed wide, instead of just floating the ball back, she can get some heat on it, and that’s crucial. A lot of the girls are not strong enough to do that. I was very impressed how Coco ran down a lot of balls and got them back with speed and depth. It’s like Rafa. He’s in trouble, and all the sudden he’s out of trouble.”For a player, any day someone draws a comparison to Nadal on clay is a good day. So is any day that you leave a tournament with two champion’s trophies after a long wait. More

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      2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Wednesday Night

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TodayHow to WatchThe Players to KnowTesting Australians’ VIrus AnxietiesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Wednesday NightRafael Nadal and Ashleigh Barty will play on Day 4 of the tournament.Sam Stosur of Australia will face Jessica Pegula, the American who upset Victoria Azarenka in the first round.Credit…James Ross/EPA, via ShutterstockFeb. 10, 2021Updated 7:51 a.m. ETHow to watch: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern on the Tennis Channel, 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on ESPNEWS and 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on ESPN2 in the United States; streaming on the ESPN+ and ESPN3 apps.Jessica Pegula of the United States upset the 12th seed, Victoria Azarenka, in the opening round for her first match victory at a major tournament, and she will now face the Australian veteran Samantha Stosur. Although Stosur has focused on playing doubles over the past few years, she is still a force in singles, especially with a home-court advantage.Her fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin certainly benefited from that advantage in his first-round upset of the 13th seed, David Goffin, and he will now meet Lloyd Harris. A win would put Popyrin, who is ranked 113th in the world, into the third round for a third straight year.Here are more matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are best guesses and are certain to fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Rod Laver Arena | 9 p.m. WednesdayAshleigh Barty vs. Daria GavrilovaAs the world of professional sports slowly reopened amid the coronavirus pandemic, Ashleigh Barty, the world No. 1, decided not to travel to tournaments and stayed in Australia. That decision, which she attributed to concerns about bringing the virus back to her home country, kept her out of the U.S. Open and prevented her from trying to defend her French Open title.Questions about the level of Barty’s preparations were quashed as she won the Yarra Valley Classic last week and then defeated her first-round opponent in the Open without dropping a game.Ashleigh Barty in her first-round victory.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDaria Gavrilova, a former Russian national who now represents Australia, received a wild-card entry into the main draw of the Australian Open. Struggling with chronic foot injuries, she took a year away from tennis after the 2019 U.S. Open. She returned in time for the rescheduled French Open in October, defeating Dayana Yastremska in the first round. However, she has not been playing at her peak, and she will certainly struggle against the overpowering, aggressive brand of tennis that Barty has mastered.Court 13 | 9 p.m. WednesdayCasper Ruud vs. Tommy PaulCasper Ruud, the 24th seed, last year became the first Norwegian to win an ATP title and became the highest-ranking Norwegian in tour history, surpassing the mark set by his father, Christian Ruud, who reached No. 39 in 1995. Now Ruud is aiming to reach the third round for a third consecutive time at a major, solidifying his place in the top 25. In his way is a familiar opponent. Ruud defeated Tommy Paul in the second round of the French Open in October.Paul, the world No. 53, had his best result at a Grand Slam last year, reaching the third round of the Australian Open by upsetting Grigor Dimitrov in a thrilling five-set match. Paul followed that up with an impressive win over Alexander Zverev in Mexico just a month later but was unable to carry that momentum into the second half of the season. Now he must be hoping that the quicker surface in Australia will favor him against Ruud, who tends to prefer playing out longer, more strategic points.Rod Laver Arena | 3 a.m. ThursdayCoco Gauff vs. Elina SvitolinaCoco Gauff seemed fully in control of her first-round match, easily beating Jil Teichmann. Just a week before, in a tuneup tournament, Gauff had needed three sets to defeat Teichmann. On Tuesday, Gauff increased her intensity, choosing to dictate as many points as possible rather than giving Teichmann the time to settle into craftier exchanges.Coco Gauff in her first-round win.Credit…Jason O’Brien/EPA, via ShutterstockElina Svitolina, the fifth seed, is a gifted defensive player who tends to soak up pressure, coaxing unforced errors out of offensively minded opponents. Svitolina’s consistency allows her to await the proper moment to unleash a counterattack, usually in relatively low-risk situations. For Gauff, this will present a particularly tough challenge. Although Gauff has shown from her breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2019 that she is mentally tough, being worn down by a defensive veteran can be unusually disheartening.Rod Laver Arena | 5 A.m. ThursdayRafael Nadal vs. Michael MmohWhen he secured his 13th French Open title in October, Rafael Nadal tied Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam singles titles among men. Of Nadal’s 20 Grand Slam titles, only one was captured at the Australian Open, in 2009. Nadal, 34, has been the runner-up in Melbourne four times, losing in memorable matches to Federer, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka. Now, as he seeks to surpass Federer’s total, he will need to hold off some rising stars.Rafael Nadal in a training session at Melbourne Park this week.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNadal’s opponent tonight, the 23-year-old Michael Mmoh, has never been past the second round at a Grand Slam tournament. Now ranked 177th in the world, he had to play in the qualifying draws to make it into the Australian Open, and he struggled through a grinding five-set match against a fellow qualifier, Viktor Troicki, in the first round. Mmoh’s quick, aggressive style can put an opponent on his back foot, but that will be tough to do against Nadal, whose defensive skills, while often overlooked, are just as exceptional as his offensive prowess.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on:Feliciano López vs. Lorenzo Sonego — 7 p.m.Mackenzie McDonald vs. Borna Coric — 11 p.m.Jessica Pegula vs. Sam Stosur — 6 a.m.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Monday Night

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2021 Australian Open: What to Watch on Monday NightOne of the several young Americans taking the court, Sofia Kenin will begin her defense of her 2020 Australian Open title.Sofia Kenin won the 2020 Australian Open.Credit…Graham Denholm/Getty ImagesFeb. 8, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETHow to watch: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on ESPN2 in the United States; streaming on the ESPN+ app.The first round of the Australian Open is set to finish on Monday, with a few previous champions on the schedule. Rafael Nadal and Ashleigh Barty will both be featured on the court at Rod Laver Arena in the early hours of the morning for fans on the Eastern Seaboard. For those who don’t want to stay up too late on a school night, there are plenty of exciting matches planned for the evening.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are guesses at best and certain to fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Rod Laver Arena | 7 p.m. MondaySofia Kenin vs. Maddison InglisSofia Kenin, the defending women’s singles champion in Melbourne, had a breakthrough year in 2020. In addition to her first Grand Slam victory, she reached the final at the French Open and the round of 16 at the United States Open, finishing the year at No. 4 in the world. Kenin, 22, is one of four women who have won their first Grand Slam titles in the past two years, creating a cluttered field of players with heightened expectations. Inevitably, some won’t live up to them. Kenin’s aggressive baseline play and well-concealed drop shots are potent weapons on the fast hard courts of Melbourne Park. Kenin, who had a leg injury going into the tournament, will hope to have an easy time against Maddison Inglis in her first round matchup.Maddison Inglis received a wild card into the main draw. She has never advanced past the first round of a Grand Slam main draw.Credit…Mike Owen/Getty ImagesInglis, an Australian who received a wild card into the main draw, has never progressed past the first round at a Grand Slam. Her counterattacking style has trouble holding up against some of the harder hitters on the WTA Tour, although she certainly shows moments of brilliance. Getting her first main draw victory will be a tall order, especially against Kenin. But this match should help illuminate whether Inglis was able to improve on her previous performances and make the improvements necessary to succeed on the tour in the future.Margaret Court Arena | 9 p.m. MondayVictoria Azarenka vs. Jessica PegulaVictoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion and former world No. 1, struggled with her return to the tour after injuries and a mentally draining custody battle. Last year, she reached her first Grand Slam final since 2013 and proved that she was still capable of challenging for titles, winning the Western and Southern Open before the U.S. Open. Azarenka is one of the tour’s veterans, but her game does not look out of place among the young power hitters seeking to supplant former champions.Jessica Pegula pushed Sofia Kenin to three sets in a tournament leading up to the Australian Open.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJessica Pegula, the world No. 61, has had some recent success on hard courts. She reached the third round of the 2020 U.S. Open, and pushed Kenin to three sets at the Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne last week. Pegula’s focus on deep, consistent shotmaking is an asset, but it can be undercut if she doesn’t move her opponents on the court well enough to unsettle them. If she can take control of points, there’s a possibility of an early upset.John Cain Arena | 10 p.m. MondayCoco Gauff vs. Jil TeichmannCoco Gauff, a 16-year-old American, and Jil Teichmann, a 23-year-old Swiss player, played each other just last week in the first round of the Gippsland Trophy, with Gauff winning in three sets. Both players represent the brightest hope for the future of women’s tennis in their countries.Teichmann has found the most success on clay, having won WTA titles in 2019 at the Prague Open and Palermo International. Gauff won her first title at the Linz Open in 2019 but has raised her profile most on the Grand Slam stage. She has reached the round of 16 twice, including last year at the Australian Open.Like their last match, this one is bound to be close. Gauff’s tenacity and mental strength have been on display recently, although Teichmann has shown a little more inventiveness in her play, continually searching for her opponent’s weaknesses.Rod Laver Arena | 5 a.m. TuesdayStefanos Tsitsipas vs. Gilles SimonStefanos Tsitsipas, of Greece, the fifth seed in the men’s singles draw, was in good form during the ATP Cup this month, defeating Alex de Minaur and Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets. But inconsistency has been an issue throughout his career. His shotmaking is on par with many of the other top players, but he has struggled with securing victories on the biggest stages. A 2019 ATP Finals championship has been the highlight of his career, but aside from that he has won only ATP 250 events, the lowest rung of events on the ATP Tour.Stefanos Tsitsipas is the fifth seed in the men’s singles draw. Aside from his 2019 ATP Finals championship, Tsitsipas has won only ATP 250 events, the lowest rung on the tour.Credit…/EPA, via ShutterstockGilles Simon, of France, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 6 in 2009, emphasizes mental toughness as the most important aspect of tennis. A lack of focus on that part of the game, he suggests in his recent autobiography, is the main problem with the development of young tennis players in France. Although his best days are behind him, he can still provide a formidable challenge to Tsitsipas if he can create opportunities for winners through clever shot placement and prevent Tsitsipas from unloading his favored one-handed backhand.Matches for the Night Owls:Nikoloz Basilashvili vs. Tommy Paul — midnightKevin Anderson vs. Matteo Berrettini — 3 a.m.Karolina Muchova vs. Jelena Ostapenko — 3 a.m.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More