Coco Gauff will get a chance to attempt a grand slam encore after the 15-year-old received a wildcard into the US Open main draw.
The Floridian teenager made a magical run to the fourth round at Wimbledon last month, in her debut major, after getting a wildcard into the qualifying rounds at the All England Club.
Ranked just 313th at the time, Gauff became the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon, upset five-time champion Venus Williams in the first round and wound up losing to title winner Simona Halep.
Gauff is No.140 in the WTA rankings. She initially made a mark at age 13 by becoming the youngest US Open junior finalist; she won the French Open junior title at 14.
“I want to thank the USTA for the opportunity to participate in my home slam,” Gauff said in a statement emailed by her agent.
“I look forward to playing my first main draw at the U.S. Open.”
Among the other players receiving wild cards from the USTA on Tuesday for the women’s field at Flushing Meadows in New York City were 17-year-old Caty McNally, an American who won the doubles title with Gauff and reached the singles semi-finals in Washington earlier this month.
The draw for the U.S. Open is August 22, and play in the year’s last major tennis tournament begins August 26.
Other women’s wild cards went to Francesca Di Lorenzo, Whitney Osuigwe, Kristie Ahn and Katie Volynets of the US, along with 16-year-old Diane Parry of France, who got her country’s reciprocal invitation.
Denis Kudla, who was the highest-ranked man to miss out on making the field via direct acceptance gets in after the withdraw due to injury of former champion Juan Martin del Potro.
So the USTA announced that Kudla’s wildcard would now go to Chris Eubanks while others to get a free ride into the 128-man field are Jack Sock, Bjorn Fratangelo, Marcos Giron, Ernesto Escobedo, Zachary Svajda and Frenchman Antoine Hoang.