Erick W. Rasco
It had been one of the defining images of the 2019 tennis season. But on this October evening Coco Gauff's expansive smile was twisted into a frown. The 15-year-old had emerged as the sport's hottest sensation in years, though she felt anything but hot at this moment. And not simply because the locker room at TipsArena in Linz, Austria, was inexplicably frigid.
Given Gauff's modest ranking (110)—which she couldn't elevate because of age-based restrictions on her schedule—she had to play in the tournament's qualifying rounds just to get into the main draw. No problem.