Young Coco Gauff to lead the US tennis team at the Tokyo Games

17-year-old Coco Gauff, who reached the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday, leads the US tennis team revamped to host the Tokyo Olympics.

The 12-man Olympic delegation will not feature either of Williams’ sisters – Serena and Venus – for the first time in more than 20 years.

Along with Gave, last Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady, Jessica Pegula and Alison Riske will compete in the women’s singles class.

Goff will also play in Women’s Doubles with Nicole Melchard, while Pegula will partner with Bethany Mattek-Sands.

The players who will compete in the men’s singles event are Tommy Ball, Francis Tiafoe, Tennys Sandgren and Marcus Giron. In the doubles, Tiafoe will play Rajiv Ram and Sandgren with Austin Krajesek.

Mixed doubles teams will later be named from the same group of players.

The announcement of the list coincided with Gauff’s victory Thursday against Elena Vesnina at Wimbledon.

After facing the first round, Goff announced his willingness to play in the games, despite the restrictions placed on athletes due to the pandemic.

“That was one of the goals of qualifying for the team this year. So yeah, the decision was to play whenever I could to join the team,” Gauff said.

On the eve of the start of the London Grand Slam, Serena Williams has announced that she will not be competing in Tokyo.

The American star did not explain her decision, but banning foreign fans and family members from attending the games would have separated her from her young daughter, Alexis Olympia.

The United States won 39 medals, 21 of them gold, with Olympic tennis. Venus and Serena Williams have each won four gold medals since their debut at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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