As tennis players seem to take longer to reach their full potential and veterans keep going longer, both trends pushing average ages up if those impressions are borne out by stats, the performance of Gauff at the current Wimbledon championships seems incredible for her youth (15 years and a little over 3 and a half months) and I wondered if a new record may be being created.
But she'll have to do quite a lot more in this event to break an age-related record for slam progress. The only two precedents I've checked are the famously precocious Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger.
Austin was still 14 - a good few months shy of her 15th birthday - when she reached the QF at the 1977 US Open. So no chance of Gauff beating an all-Slams record just by reaching a QF.
And Jaeger was a few weeks younger than Gauff - around a few days shy of 15y 3m - when she reached the the SF of the 1980 US Open, after reaching the QF of that year's Wimbledon, so:
- Gauff reaching the QF would not be a Wimbledon record; and
- Gauff reaching the SF would not be an all-Slams record (though query Wimbledon record - I've only checked Austin and Jaeger's ages/results).
But presumably if Gauff reached the final that would indeed be an all-Slams age record?
But she'll have to do quite a lot more in this event to break an age-related record for slam progress. The only two precedents I've checked are the famously precocious Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger.
Austin was still 14 - a good few months shy of her 15th birthday - when she reached the QF at the 1977 US Open. So no chance of Gauff beating an all-Slams record just by reaching a QF.
And Jaeger was a few weeks younger than Gauff - around a few days shy of 15y 3m - when she reached the the SF of the 1980 US Open, after reaching the QF of that year's Wimbledon, so:
- Gauff reaching the QF would not be a Wimbledon record; and
- Gauff reaching the SF would not be an all-Slams record (though query Wimbledon record - I've only checked Austin and Jaeger's ages/results).
But presumably if Gauff reached the final that would indeed be an all-Slams age record?
Comment