WIMBLEDON, Great Britain - On both sides of the Atlantic, Coco Gauff is moving the needle. Almost unknown when Wimbledon began, the 15-year-old qualifier has quickly developed a fanbase, with her third-round match on Friday evening attracting the biggest television audience of the tournament so far in both Great Britain and the United States.
Such has been the interest in Gauff's fast-moving story, 5.2million people watched the BBC's coverage of the American teenager saving two match points against Slovenia's Polona Hercog on Centre Court. That peak audience was 1.5m more than the second most popular match of The Championships so far, which was Rafael Nadal's combative encounter with Nick Kyrgios the previous evening. Gauff's first two matches of the week, against Venus Williams on Monday and then Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova on Wednesday, both drew audiences in excess of 2m - also putting them inside the top 10 so far.
A spokesman for ESPN said its greatest audience of the first week was Gauff's comeback against Hercog. Every time she has played, her match has had ESPN's biggest audience of the day.
SERENA WILLIAMS' husband, Alexis Ohanian, wore a United States women's football shirt during her third-round match against Germany's Julia Goerges on Saturday. With the US to play the Netherlands in Sunday's World Cup final in France, this was a further strengthening of the ties between Team Serena and the USWNT. A number of the footballers have previously disclosed how they have been inspired by the tennis player while Serena has spoken in support of the USWNT's campaign for better pay.
A SAME-SEX couple competed at Wimbledon for the first time in the tournament's history this summer, with the Belgian pair of Greet Minnen and Alison Van Uytvanck winning a match before losing in the second round. In the week of Pride in London, Van Uytvanck has encouraged other tennis players to be open about their sexuality, telling the media: "We [would like to] see more people coming forward and saying 'It's OK'. I think people would have more confidence. More people would come out - it would help to make it easier."
AN UNDEFEATED champion at this year's WTA Finals Shenzhen will receive $4.7m, it was announced during the first week of Wimbledon. That's considerably more than the $3m reward for winning the women's (or men's) singles at Wimbledon. It is also the biggest single prize on offer in professional tennis. In comparison to other sports, the biggest single tournament payout in women's golf is $1m for winning the US Open and the winning team at the FIFA Women's World Cup scoops $4m.
SERVING to Dayana Yastremska, the 19-year-old from Odessa in Ukraine, isn't a comfortable experience. So far she has hit 21 return winners during Wimbledon, which is more than double the next woman on the list. Into the last 16 for the first time, she plays China's Shuai Zhang for a place in the quarter-finals.
