Wimbledon: It’s child’s play again for 15-year-old Coco

Two sleeps later for Coco, as we all call her now, was back trying to win her second match as Wimbledon’s youngest-ever qualifier in the Open era – the teen sensation who will leave John McEnroe “astonished” if she isn’t No 1 by the time she’s 20.

Gauff duly disposed of Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova, pictured, 6-3, 6-3 and, facing Carolina Wozniaki of Denmark next, declared: “I can beat anybody.”

The match was switched from Court No 2 to No 1, scene of Gauff’s demolition of her idol Venus Williams, and the spanking new roof had been rolled out apparently in her honour as it wasn’t raining last night.

The roof modified the sound of the balls being thwacked so, stumbling into the arena and not knowing a thing about SW19’s breakout star, you might have thought you were in an out-of-town sports hall watching a promising college wannabe.

Gauff is way beyond that. Her forehands burned into corners and the backhands did what they did to Williams; how familiar we are with them already. She achieved the break in the sixth game and clinched the first set in 28 minutes.

Bruce Springsteen was once dubbed the future of rock ‘n’ roll by an over-excited rock critic and for a while laboured under the weight of that bombast. Tennis must hope the same thing doesn’t happen to Gauff because the sport needs bright new young stars. But did she seem daunted after 48 hours of intense media fascination when her rapper preferences and prayer routines have been exhaustively discussed? Not a bit.

Rybarikova, in contrast to Williams, offered energy and movement, but she was playing a girl who at three, attending an older niece’s athletics meeting, leapt out of her pushchair and gave chase to the competitors, running three times round a 400m track.

One of the many stunning things about Gauff is her composure, though she admitted afterwards the size of the story she’d created surprised her. “I definitely wasn’t expecting this,” she said, “and it was a challenge after these past couple of days to reset for this match. At practice, I just tried to hit the ball harder. Then right before the game I watched my YouTube  videos, pranks and stuff. I figured I should just keep doing the same things in the  build-up. Social media has been like crazy. I’ve had lots of messages from celebrities. But I don’t think I should turn it off right now. It kind of relaxes me.”

Gauff’s break in the second set came right away. Next game she double-faulted, to gasps from the crowd. How quickly we’ve come to expect flawlessness, but didn’t you know? She’s only 15. Completely unruffled, she followed this rare blip with an ace. Rybarikova then played her best game, and grabbed the first point of the next one with a marvellous pick-up on the canter. Completely unruffled, though Rybarikova was fighting hard, Gauff maintained her advantage.

It had turned into a cracking match, Rybarikova not wishing to be a mere extra in this fast-forming fairytale, but she couldn’t stop Guaff, the contest ending on 69 minutes and the outcome being acclaimed with a raucous, roof-enhanced roar. Two far more experienced opponents, and one legend, vanquished, no sets dropped, just 18 errors. “Shows if you really work hard you can get where you wanna go,” said Gauff. I should Coco, a Britpop band once declared. We’ll all be Coco-ing before long.