Coco Gauff to lead US tennis team at Paris Olympics after missing Tokyo

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Coco Gauff of the U.S. clenches her fist after scoring a point against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur during their quarterfinal match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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Tommy Paul of the US serves to Alejandro Tabilo of Chile during their men’s singles match on day six of The Queen’s Club tennis tournament, in London, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

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Taylor Fritz of the US plays a return to Milos Raonic of Canada during their men’s singles match on day five of The Queen’s Club tennis tournament, in London, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

By KEN MAGUIRE

Coco Gauff will lead the U.S. tennis team at the Paris Olympics three years after missing the Tokyo Games because she tested positive for COVID-19.

The 20-year-old Gauff, ranked No. 2, will be joined by No. 5 Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro in women’s singles, along with Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Chris Eubanks and Marcos Giron in men’s singles.

Olympic tennis starts July 27 at Roland Garros, the site of the French Open.

The American team features six first-time Olympians, the U.S. Tennis Association said in Thursday’s announcement.

Gauff is the U.S. Open champion and has reached the semifinals at the year’s first two Grand Slams, the Australian and French Opens. She was a finalist on the Roland Garros clay in 2022 and will be a medal contender in doubles, too.

Gauff and Pegula have won five doubles titles as a pair. Gauff won her first major doubles title — with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic — at the French Open this month.

Gauff tested positive for COVID-19 days before the start of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in July 2021.

Pegula returned to action last week from a neck injury in April that forced her to miss the French Open. She was a singles quarterfinalist there in 2022.

The 30-year-old Collins, who has said this will be her final season on the tour, has won two titles this year in Miami and Charleston. The 2022 Australian Open runner-up also reached the Strasbourg final in May before a second-round exit at the French Open, where her best result was the quarterfinals in 2020.

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Doubles player Desirae Krawczyk will team up with Collins at the Paris Games. Collins and Krawczyk won a doubles title last year in Charleston. Krawczyk is a four-time Grand Slam champion in mixed doubles.

Navarro, at a career-high No. 17, reached the fourth round at Roland Garros.

For the men, Fritz is the highest-ranked American at No. 12, followed by Paul at No. 13. Eubanks is 44th and Giron 53rd.

Paul and Giron competed at the Tokyo Games.

The U.S. is also taking 40-year-old Rajeev Ram to his third Olympics. He’ll be paired with Austin Krajicek in doubles. Fritz and Paul will also join forces in doubles.

Ram, who has four major doubles titles, won the mixed doubles silver medal with Venus Williams at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

The USTA said it will announce one mixed doubles team for Paris at a later date.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)