Venus, Serena, and Coco

I watch tennis maybe three times a year—four if I'm really feeling festive—primarily just to say “I've watched tennis,” but also because the sport is weirdly intense. Like, scarily intense. It's very entertaining, though, especially when they show ball boys and girls scooping up tennis balls like their next breath depends on it (which it apparently does, see below).

Stuff like this is amusing to me 😂

However, I was recently checking Wimbledon updates when I came across a story about a fifteen year old girl participating in the latest round of games. Her name is Cori “Coco” Gauff, and she's already made an impact in the world of professional tennis players. So far, she's become the youngest person to qualify in Wimbledon, won a game against Venus Williams, and made her name synonymous with tennis legends in a matter of weeks. And did I mention that she's fifteen? I don't remember much of what I was doing at that age, but I'm 100% sure it's insignificant compared to this.

To put it into perspective, professional tennis players go through rigorous training processes to be recognizable for competing in Wimbledon. Players commonly devote 25+ hours a week to fitness and preparation for rounds. Even the aforementioned ball boys and ball girl a have to go through a tough training and selection process. Plus, the typical player is in at least their mid 20s to early 30s by the time they get to professional level and in order to have the physical and mental discipline to train for hours on end. Meanwhile, Cori is ignoring all of this and playing amazingly with all that training done at such a young age. Wow. That might've been the first time I used “wow” in a non sarcastic way.

There are still so many more rounds of competition left, and a chance for Cori to go home. But, holy crap, let's give this girl a round of applause because this is absolutely astonishing. We wish the best of luck to her and to all of the players in Wimbledon this year (because every one of them is doing phenomenal things by competing), and hopefully, I'll be watching tennis six times this year!