French Open 2024: Who Is Coco Gauff’s R1 Opponent? Meet Russia’s Julia Avdeeva, the Biggest Aryna Sabalenka Fangirl

American hope Coco Gauff is all set to kick-start her campaign in the 2024 French Open on Monday (May 27). Third seed Gauff will take on Russia’s Julia Avdeeva in the first round at the Court Suzanne Lenglen. The 21-year-old Avdeeva will make her main draw debut in the French Open against one of the finest in the women’s circuit at the moment. She has never played in a Grand Slam qualifying draw before this week. In fact, she has not even contested in any tour-level qualifying draw before this. But here in the qualifiers, she looked quite impressive!

She defeated Guadalajara quarterfinalist, Emiliana Arango 6-4,2-6,6-3 in her first qualifiers in Paris. After that, she took just two sets to defeat the French tennis player Margaux Rouvroy by two sets in front of her home crowd. Then in the last match, Julia Avdeeva had to finally overcome the Australian hurdle, Olivia Gadecki to move into the main draw of the 2024 French Open. The right-handed Russian tennis sensation, Avdeeva is currently placed at the 208th spot in the women’s singles ranking.

Avdeeva began her journey on the ITF Circuit in 2019. She won the ITF 60K Hamburg title taking her ranking into the Top 300 for the first time. In April Julia Avdeeva made her WTA 125 debut as a lucky loser at the Oeiras Ladies Open. She had made it to the second round of that tournament. After that, she reached her career-high WTA singles ranking of world number 188 on 20 May 2024. So, far Avdeeva has won 3 ITF titles in her career. Hopefully, for the Russian tennis fans, there is still more to come on the bigger stages of the game.

Coco Gauff’s next opponent, Julia Avdiva possesses a powerful game that is centered around a formidable first-serve. Did you know, in February she hammered 74 aces in 5 matches en route to winning the Altenkirchen ITF W75 tournament? Before this appearance in the main event of Roland Garros, her biggest success came when she clinched two Top 100 wins over Jaqueline Cristian and Oceane Dodin for the first time in her career. Before the French Open, Avdeeva had made a short stint at the ITF Slovakia 03A.

But in Paris, she’d been keen to create a historic moment and put her name in the headlines of the tennis world. Julia Avdeeva loves to construct her points from the baseline and has a decent all-around game on the courts. Challenging the world number 3, is a mammoth task but do you know she loves to replicate the style of world number 2?

“I try to play a little like her” – Coco Gauff’s first-round opponent is a big fan of Aryna Sabalenka

Julia Avdeeva has quite an interesting story. She was born in Siberia and her mother was an athlete in fact her whole family is athletic. The 21-year-old tennis sensation used to train in St. Petersburg for a long time. But now she trains in Germany with a coach. Once during an interview with a Russian media, Sports” she said, “My boyfriend is also like a coach.” But who does Julia Avdeeva look up to in terms of her playing style?

“I really like Aryna Sabalenka. I try to play a little like her, I watch a lot of her matches. Her example gives me confidence in my playing. And in general, there are more examples of tall, active players with tight shots being successful,” Avdeeva. Coco Gauff’s R1 opponent went on to add, “At some point, I found meaning in this for my game too, I try to analyze and see what I can do in a similar style. It would be interesting, of course, to play with Aryna. But I would like to do it later in the tournament (laughs).” Can Julia Avdeeva come up with a firm challenge against Coco Gauff on Monday?