US Open: Is age rule holding back teenage tennis star Cori Gauff?

It’s a rule that has drawn criticism, notably from Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who has been guiding Gauff since he first spotted her at the age of 11.

“This is completely unfair to players who are able to achieve something at that time of their life and career,” Mouratoglou told CNN Sport. “This is against diversity; I think tennis is interesting because it’s diverse.”

‘High-stakes environment’

Gauff, who was beaten by Briton Heather Watson 6-4 6-1 in that US Open qualifier, might be an outlier for her age — “Coco is a wonderful talent,” Ashley Keber, WTA vice president, member relations, told CNN Sport — but the organization that runs the women’s game says the eligibility rule is vital, however talented any teenage player might be.

“I think at the very core of the rule is that these are children competing in an adult work place, full stop,” said Keber, who adds that the women’s Tour is “a high-performance, high-stakes environment, so you really need to be at your peak.”

Although some players can look physically strong at 14, “their development is not linear,” as they go through the various stages of adolescence, according to Keber.

“Their physical development might be more progressed than their emotional, or their cognitive. Or they may be more emotionally developed and their physical still needs time to catch up.

“It can happen in spurts and stops, but it’s not all happening at the same rate. And that’s important to take into account.”

Capriati’s struggle

The age rule was brought in following a number of cases of burn-out of high-profile players, most notably Jennifer Capriati, an American teen prodigy who turned pro at 13, reached the top 10 at 14 and became an Olympic champion at 16 at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

A global star and millionaire at 13, Capriati struggled with her sudden rise to fame and fortune, and by the time she was 18, her career had been derailed by off-court problems including arrests for shoplifting and marijuana possession charges.

Although she staged a successful comeback in her mid-20s, clinching three majors in 2001 and 2002, her meteoric rise wouldn’t be possible today.

These days players aged 13 or younger can’t play any events on the WTA Tour, the ITF women’s circuit, the Fed Cup team event or the Olympics.

At 14, girls are allowed to play up to eight pro events a year, in addition to a maximum of 18 junior tournaments, an allocation which gradually increases with each birthday until the player turns 18, when they are free to play in as many events as they want.

This means Gauff, who has played two senior events since her 14th birthday, has six more left to enter before she turns 15.

Short-term pain, long-term gain

“She’s amazing because she’s an incredible fighter and she is an incredible athlete,” Mouratoglou has said of Gauff’s sporting prowess. “She goes for her shots and takes the risks.”

However, as well as arguably not being able to fulfill her tennis talent, by not being able to play a full schedule until she is 18, Gauff may be losing out on millions of dollars in prize money and endorsements.

At next week’s US Open, the season’s final tennis major, a record prize money pot of $53 million is up for grabs, including $3.8 million each for the men’s and women’s singles champions. The world No. 100 on the women’s Tour is a 19-year-old Russian called Anna Blinkova, who has earned more than $500,000 in her career, including just over $260,000 so far this season.

Gauff is one of the few junior players who has her own agent, Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano, who works for Team 8, the agency formed by 20-time major winner Roger Federer and his long-time agent, Tony Godsick.

During Wimbledon, Barel Di Sant Albano said he had already received quite a few endorsement offers for Gauff, but turned them down to give her time to focus on her tennis first.

Although Gauff may be losing out financially in the short term, she may very well end up earning more in the long-term because it’s likely her career will last much longer compared to teenagers who played before the age rule came in.

Since the rule was introduced, WTA Tour careers are lasting, on average, two years longer, while burn-out rates (players who retire before the age of 22), have dropped from over 7% to less than 2%, according to Keber.

“So we are keeping our top players in the game, which is really important, we are giving them that opportunity to have a long career,” she said.

Mouratoglou criticism

Although careers are lasting much longer — Williams is the 6-1 favorite alongside the top-ranked Simona Halep to win the US Open at the age of 36 — teenage grand slam champions are now a rare sight.

Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 US Open at the age of 19, and Maria Sharapova, who took the Wimbledon title that same year at 17, are the last teenagers to win a women’s singles grand slam title.

Nonetheless Mouratoglou, the founder and president of the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France where Gauff trains, remains unconvinced about the rule.

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