Tennis-Gauff headlines US team at Paris Olympics

(Reuters) – U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff is set to make her Olympic debut this year after being named in a Paris-bound American tennis team that includes six first-time Olympians, the USTA said on Thursday.

World number two Gauff, who was unable to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19, will be joined on the U.S. 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 — site of the Olympic tennis competition — will also team up with Pegula in doubles while Collins will pair up with Desirae Krawczyk.

Collins, who announced in January 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 at Miami and Charleston.

On the men’s side, world number 12 Taylor Fritz is the highest-ranked American in a singles squad that also includes Tommy Paul, Chris Eubanks and Marcos Giron.

Fritz and Paul will make up one doubles team while world doubles number six Rajeev Ram and No. 15 Austin Krajicek will form the other.

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

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)