Gauff headlines US team for Paris Olympics

Coco Gauff, the U.S. Open champion, will make her Olympic debut this year after being named to a Paris-bound American tennis team that includes six first-time Olympians, the USTA announced Thursday.

Gauff, the world number two who was unable to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19, will be joined on the US women's singles team by Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, and Emma Navarro.

Gauff, who won her first major doubles title this year at Roland Garros (the site of the Olympic tennis competition), will also play doubles with Pegula, while Collins will team up with Desirae Krawczyk.

Collins, who announced in January that she would retire after the season, has a 36-11 singles record this year, including a 15-match winning streak and back-to-back titles in Miami and Charleston.

On the men's side, Taylor Fritz is the highest-ranked American in a singles lineup that includes Tommy Paul, Chris Eubanks, and Marcos Giron.

Fritz and Paul will form one doubles team, while Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, ranked sixth and fifteenth in the world, will form the other.

The US Tennis Association said it will announce a mixed doubles team at a later date.

SportsLigue