Britain's Liam Broady and Samantha Murray lose in final round of qualifying
Thursday 27 June 2019 21:44, UK
American Cori Gauff has become the youngest player to qualify for the Wimbledon women's singles main draw, at the age of 15, since the Open era began in 1968.
World No 301 Gauff, aged 15 years and 122 days, defeated Belgium's world No 129 Greet Minnen 6-1 6-1 in the third and final round of qualifying - her third consecutive straight-sets victory - on Thursday.
Gauff will be the first person under 16 to feature in the main draw at Wimbledon since Britain's Laura Robson was awarded a wild card aged 15 in 2009.
"I'm still in shock that I'm going to be playing main draw Wimbledon," Gauff said.
"I think my first memory was watching Serena playing Wimbledon, and I think she won - I don't remember which year, she's won so many times."
Gauff, who had received a wildcard into qualifying, defeated No 1 seed Aliona Bolsova in the first of her three wins at Roehampton.
Gauff, who was born in Georgia and is now based in Florida, will be the 12th youngest player to compete in women's singles at the Grand Slam tournament since professionals were first admitted in 1968.
The 11 who were younger all got spots in the draw through direct entry, rather than qualifying.
Gauff, who won the French Open juniors at 14, will now make her Grand Slam main draw singles debut at Wimbledon, having reached the Wimbledon juniors quarter-finals last year.
Liam Broady missed out on a place in the main draw of Wimbledon after squandering a two-set lead against France's Gregoire Barrere in the final round of qualifying.
The British No eight loss just three games in less than an hour against the world No 117, ranked 170 places above him, to establish a commanding lead.
However, Barrere turned it around to win 3-6 0-6 6-2 6-4 6-3.
Samantha Murray, 362nd in the women's rankings, had won five matches, including at pre-qualifying, to close on a place in the main draw but the British player lost 4-6 6-2 3-6 to Spain's Paula Badosa.
