The US Open is set to make a controversial move by handing a wildcard to teenage sensation Coco Gauff.
Gauff shot to prominence this summer after beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon, before losing to eventual winner Simona Halep in the quarter-finals.
WTA rules state that a player is not meant to receive more than three wildcards in their 15th year and Gauff has already reached that marker.
But the United States Tennis Association are hoping to find a way to bypass that ruling by claiming it is a major and not part of the regular tour.
“We would expect to see Coco in the main draw of the US Open,” USTA director of communications Chris Widmaier told the New York Post.
“She certainly won the hearts of tennis fans in our country with her Wimbledon performance.
It’s not every day an athlete of her age becomes water-cooler talk.”
