The French coach holds court on the sport’s latest prodigy, his new league and the prospects of staging the US Open
In the chaos of a pandemic and scenes in the United States of police brutality against protesters protesting against police brutality, clarity can arise from unexpected places. On Wednesday afternoon it came at the Delray Beach City Hall in the form of a 16-year-old tennis player. With a microphone, a mask and a bottle of water in her hand, Coco Gauff stood and let the world hear her message.
Unlike the vague platitudes often offered in speech by her elders, in her two-and-a-half-minute speech Gauff did not waste a word. She projected determination, anger and solutions. She finished defiantly: “Black lives have always mattered. They mattered then, they matter now and they will matter in the future.” Then she marched from the stage.
Related: Osaka and Gauff should not be discouraged from their protests | Tumaini Carayol
Related: ‘I was just lost’: Coco Gauff says rapid rise and hype led to depression
