French Open: Coco Gauff’s uses semi-final victory to call out gun culture in USA
Having cruised into the final of the French Open Coco Gauff did not want the spotlight on her, instead the young American used her platform to call out a culture of violence
Coco Gauff became the youngest Grand Slam finalist in 18 years at the French Open on Thursday and used her landmark performance to demand action on mass shootings in the United States by writing “peace, end gun violence” on a courtside TV camera.
American star Gauff, 18, will face world number one Iga Swiatek in the final on Saturday after defeating Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-1 in her semi-final.
Before penning her plea for gun control at home, she insisted that recent tragedies mean she will treat victory or defeat in the championship match with equal equanimity.
"Peace. End gun violence", Coco Gauff writes in the camera lens after booking her spot in the #RolandGarros final. pic.twitter.com/3FR5DG7c6w
— Gaspar Ribeiro Lança (@gasparlanca) June 2, 2022
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“Yeah it’s a Grand Slam final but there are so many things going on in the world, especially in the U.S. -- I think it’s not important to stress over a tennis match,” she said in her on-court TV interview.
Gauff was talking just hours after a gunman killed at least four people at a hospital building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, -- the latest in a string of mass shootings across the United States in recent weeks.
The killings come as Texas families bury their dead after a school shooting left 19 young children dead just eight days earlier.
Winning players at the French Open are invited to write messages on the courtside TV camera. Usually they are lighthearted, often bland declarations.
However, Gauff seized her chance in front of a global TV audience, hoping that her gun control message will “get into the heads of people in office to hopefully change things”.
“The first thing my dad said to me after I got off court, I’m proud of you and I love what you wrote on the camera.” Gauff said she had not planned to write the message should she have won the match on Roland Garros’ showpiece Philippe Chatrier Court.
“It just felt right in that moment and to write that. I woke up this morning and I saw there was another shooting, and I think it’s just crazy.” Gauff hoped that being in Europe will help get her message home to a wider audience.
“I know people globally around the world are for sure watching,” she said. Gauff explained that the deaths of 17 students at the hands of a teenage gunman in the Parkland school shooting in Florida in February 2018 had already brought the issue sharply into focus on a personal level.
Some of her close friends were present at the time.
“Luckily they were able to make it out of it. I just think it’s crazy, I think I was maybe 13 or 14 when that happened, and still nothing has changed.” Gauff insisted that she will continue to speak out on political and social issues now that she has passed her 18th birthday and has the right to vote.
“Since I was younger, my dad told me I could change the world with my racquet. He didn’t mean that by like just playing tennis. He meant speaking out on issues like this.”
TENNIS BOSS LASHED FOR ‘DISAPPOINTING’ WOMEN’S CRITIQUE
French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said Wednesday that women’s matches had less appeal than men’s at Roland Garros, an opinion dismissed as “surprising and disappointing” by world number one Iga Swiatek.
Of the 10 night sessions at this year’s tournament, only one has featured a women’s tie when home player Alize Cornet faced Jelena Ostapenko in the second round.
“In this era that we are in right now, and as a woman, a former woman’s player, I don’t feel bad or unfair saying you have more attraction, more attractivity — can you say that? Appeal? — for the men’s matches,” said Mauresmo, a former world number one and a two-time Grand Slam champion.
“My goal when I was doing the schedule every day was to try and see a match in the women’s draw that I can put there.
“Honestly, it was tough. It was tough for more than one night to find the match of the day.”
Swiatek, the 2020 champion in Paris, who has played all her matches in the day this year, took Mauresmo to task, saying that the women’s game has plenty of positives.
“It is a little bit disappointing and surprising,” said the 21-year-Pole after making the semi-finals on Wednesday.
“I want my tennis to be entertainment and I remember that I also play for people. Women’s tennis has a lot of advantages.
“Some may say that it’s unpredictable and girls are not consistent. But on the other hand it may also be something that is really appealing and it may really attract more people.”
The WTA said the “depth of talent we are currently witnessing in the sport is incredible” and called for a balanced match schedule.
“Our fans want to see the excitement and thrill of women’s tennis on the biggest stages and in the premium timeslots. There is certainly room for improvement,” the WTA said in a statement to AFP.
Mauresmo, in her first year as French Open tournament director, was responding to questions over the suitability of Roland Garros night sessions which were introduced last year as part of a new broadcast deal.
Rafael Nadal’s epic quarter-final victory over Novak Djokovic, one of the nine late matches selected, finished at 1:15am on Wednesday under the lights of Court Philippe Chatrier.
Meanwhile 18 out of 20 singles matches scheduled first on Court Philippe Chatrier and Court Suzanne Lenglen have been women’s ties.
First up on Wednesday at noon was the quarter-final between Daria Kasatkina and fellow Russian Veronika Kudermetova, played out in front of rows and rows of empty seats.
“Well it’s Wednesday, 12 o’clock. I’m not expecting everyone to come and the stadium to be full the first match of the day. So, I mean that’s fine,” said Kasatkina after her straight sets win.
The status of women’s tennis in Paris also became a hot topic in 2019 when the semi-finals were played on Court Suzanne Lenglen and Court Simonne-Mathieu.
The men’s semis, however, between Roger Federer and Nadal and Djokovic’s clash with Dominic Thiem, took place on the showpiece 15,000-seat Court Philippe Chatrier.
“We are extremely disappointed by the scheduling of both women’s semi-finals on outside courts,” said WTA chief executive Steve Simon at the time.
Meanwhile, Croatia’s Marin Cilic fired 33 aces past seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev to reach his first French Open semi-final on Wednesday with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10/2) win.
Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, also crashed 88 winners in the four-hour 10-minute tie and will play either eighth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway or Danish teenager Holger Rune for a place in Sunday’s final.
The 33-year-old Cilic becomes only the fifth active men’s player after Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to make the semi-finals at all four Slams.
“The fifth set was an incredible battle,” said Cilic who is in his first Slam semi-final in four years.
“Andrey played so well. Today was my day. He just didn’t have the luck.” Rublev, playing and eventually losing his fifth quarter-final at the majors, grabbed the first set but wilted under a Cilic barrage over the next two.
The Croatian had stunned world number two Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round and he rediscovered that free-swinging assault to level the contest with a 17th ace on a fifth set point.
He pocketed the third with a lone break in the seventh game. Rublev, who had knocked Cilic out of the Australian Open in January, battled back with a crucial break in the eighth game of the fourth set.
Cilic, the 2017 Wimbledon and 2018 Australian Open runner-up to Federer, had a match point saved in the ninth game of the decider but swept through the super tie-breaker.
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