PARIS (AP) — Coco Gauff is making it look easy at the Paris Olympics so far, adding a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina in the second round of singles Monday to her growing collection of lopsided results.
So what if Gauff had more than twice as many unforced errors, 26, as winners, 11? So what if she only put 55% of her first serves in play? So what if she wound up with six double-faults and zero aces?
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Elina Svitolina of Ukraine returns a forehand shot to Jessica Pegula of the United States during their women's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Jessica Pegula of the United States reacts after scoring a point against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during their women's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine gestures during her women's singles second round match against Jessica Pegula of the United States, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain returns a forehand shot to Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands during their men's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Casper Ruud of Norway returns the ball to Andrea Vavassori of Italy during the men's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Danielle Collins of the United States hits a forehand shot to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their women's singles match at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Danielle Collins of the United States reacts after scoring a point against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their women's singles match at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Emma Navarro of the United States returns a backhand shot against Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria during the women's singles tennis competition, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic, right, hugs Spain's Rafael Nadal after their men's singles second round match at the Roland Garros stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. Novak Djokovic dominated rival Rafael Nadal to win 6-1, 6-4 at the Paris Olympics in the second round. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina returns the ball against Coco Gauff of United States during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Coco Gauff of United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reacts after scoring a point against Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands during their men's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Coco Gauff of United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Coco Gauff of the United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the Roland Garros Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
So what if it took nearly 1 1/2 hours for the reigning U.S. Open champion and No. 2-ranked Gauff to finish off an opponent who is ranked 85th, has never won a tour-level singles title and owns an 0-2 career record at Grand Slam tournaments?
“You can’t argue with the scoreline, to be honest,” the 20-year-old American said.
Sure can’t.
Look at what she's managed to do so far at her first Olympics: Not only is Gauff 3-0 across singles and women's doubles, where her partner is Jessica Pegula, but she has dropped a combined total of only nine games across six sets in those three matches.
“I knew that she was just going to probably try to out-rally me, which I feel like is one of my strengths. But also I had the ability to be aggressive,” Gauff said about the matchup with Carle, someone she was familiar with from their days as junior players. "So I think I was just trying to balance the mistakes and not let her win a lot of points off my racket.”
Her match was played at Court Suzanne Lenglen at the same time that, across the way at Court Philippe Chatrier, Novak Djokovic was beating Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4 in the 60th head-to-head matchup between two rivals with 46 Grand Slam titles between them.
Gauff said she was “kind of sad" that she missed the chance to watch a contest between two players who “mean a lot” to their sport.
Men moving into the third round included Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-6 (3) on Monday night. Alcaraz needed a medical timeout for treatment from a trainer for a groin muscle issue in the second set, then was a point from getting pushed to a third, but finished the job.
“It’s a pain that I’ve been dealing with,” Alcaraz said, mentioning that it bothered him during his run to the Wimbledon championship this month. “I know what I have to do ... to deal with this pain.”
Alcaraz, a 21-year-old who also won the French Open in June for one of his four Grand Slam titles, is scheduled to team with Nadal in doubles for Spain on Tuesday against Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof.
“I will try to recover as soon and as (best) as I can tonight,” Alcaraz said, “to be ... 100% tomorrow in my doubles.”
Other winners were Casper Ruud of Norway and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who both have reached French Open finals.
In other action around the same facility used for the French Open, where Nadal won 14 of his 22 major championships, three-time major champion Angelique Kerber was a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 winner against Jaqueline Adina Cristian of Romania, and Wimbledon champ Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced in straight sets.
Gauff's American teammates Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro both won, but the fifth-seeded Pegula was eliminated from singles 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 by Tokyo Games bronze medalist Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the day's last match. Collins eliminated 2018 Australian Open title winner Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
The next opponent for Gauff will be Donna Vekic, a Croatian who was a semifinalist at Wimbledon a little more than two weeks ago and got past 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada 6-3, 6-4 on Monday.
Gauff vs. Vekic was scheduled for Tuesday, as was the first-round match for Gauff and Taylor Fritz in mixed doubles.
Gauff is hoping to win three medals at these Games — in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988, no player has ever left a single Games with medals from three events.
On Monday, Gauff was not at all concerned by the heat, which rose into the 80s Fahrenheit for the first time during the Paris Olympics.
Being from Florida means that sort of thing is not a big deal to Gauff, although she made some concessions, wearing ice-filled towels to cool off during changeovers and taking an ice bath after the match.
“I’m just trying my best to be preventative before maybe I feel fatigue and everything,” Gauff said. "Obviously, my last two matches, I went quick. So I’m just trying to think for the future, towards the end of the tournament.”
AP National Writer Jenna Fryer contributed.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine returns a forehand shot to Jessica Pegula of the United States during their women's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Jessica Pegula of the United States reacts after scoring a point against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during their women's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine gestures during her women's singles second round match against Jessica Pegula of the United States, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain returns a forehand shot to Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands during their men's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Casper Ruud of Norway returns the ball to Andrea Vavassori of Italy during the men's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Danielle Collins of the United States hits a forehand shot to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their women's singles match at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Danielle Collins of the United States reacts after scoring a point against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their women's singles match at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Emma Navarro of the United States returns a backhand shot against Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria during the women's singles tennis competition, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic, right, hugs Spain's Rafael Nadal after their men's singles second round match at the Roland Garros stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. Novak Djokovic dominated rival Rafael Nadal to win 6-1, 6-4 at the Paris Olympics in the second round. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina returns the ball against Coco Gauff of United States during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Coco Gauff of United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reacts after scoring a point against Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands during their men's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Coco Gauff of United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Coco Gauff of the United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the Roland Garros Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.
Trump's action, hours after he was sworn in to a second term, echoed his directive in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.
Trump also signed a letter to the United Nations indicating his intention to withdraw from the 2015 agreement, which allows nations to provide targets to cut their own emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Those targets are supposed to become more stringent over time, with countries facing a February 2025 deadline for new individual plans. The outgoing Biden administration last month offered a plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.
Trump's order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that don't reflect U.S. values and “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people."
Instead of joining a global agreement, “the United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries,'' Trump said.
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris accord, called the planned U.S. withdrawal unfortunate but said action to slow climate change “is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies."
The global context for Trump's action is “very different to 2017,'' Tubiana said Monday, adding that “there is unstoppable economic momentum behind the global transition, which the U.S has gained from and led but now risks forfeiting."
The International Energy Agency expects the global market for key clean energy technologies to triple to more than $2 trillion by 2035, she said.
“The impacts of the climate crisis are also worsening. The terrible wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest reminder that Americans, like everyone else, are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.
Gina McCarthy, who served as White House climate adviser under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said that if Trump, a Republican, “truly wants America to lead the global economy, become energy independent and create good-paying American jobs," then he must “stay focused on growing our clean energy industry. Clean technologies are driving down energy costs for people all across our country."
The world is now long-term 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above mid-1800s temperatures. Most but not all climate monitoring agencies said global temperatures last year passed the warming mark of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and all said it was the warmest year on record.
The withdrawal process from the Paris accord takes one year. Trump’s previous withdrawal took effect the day after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.
While the first Trump-led withdrawal from the landmark U.N. agreement — adopted by 196 nations — shocked and angered nations across the globe, “not a single country followed the U.S. out the door,” said Alden Meyer, a longtime climate negotiations analyst with the European think tank E3G.
Instead, other nations renewed their commitment to slowing climate change, along with investors, businesses, governors, mayors and others in the U.S., Meyer and other experts said.
Still, they lamented the loss of U.S. leadership in global efforts to slow climate change, even as the world is on track to set yet another record hot year and has been lurching from drought to hurricane to flood to wildfire.
“Clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered,″ said climate activist and writer Bill McKibben. “For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others.”
About half of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose U.S. action to withdraw from the climate accord, and even Republicans aren’t overwhelmingly in favor, according according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults “somewhat” or “strongly” in favor of withdrawing from the Paris agreement, while about one-quarter are neutral.
Much of the opposition to U.S. withdrawal comes from Democrats, but Republicans display some ambivalence as well. Slightly less than half of Republicans are in favor of withdrawing from the climate accord, while about 2 in 10 are opposed.
China several years ago passed the United States as the world's largest annual carbon dioxide emitting nation. The U.S. — the second biggest annual carbon polluting country — put 4.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2023, down 11% from a decade earlier, according to the scientists who track emissions for the Global Carbon Project.
But carbon dioxide lasts in the atmosphere for centuries, so the United States has put more of the heat-trapping gas that is now in the air than any other nation. The U.S. is responsible for nearly 22% of the carbon dioxide put in the atmosphere since 1950, according to Global Carbon Project.
While global efforts to fight climate change continued during Trump's first term, many experts worry that a second Trump term will be more damaging, with the United States withdrawing even further from climate efforts in a way that could cripple future presidents’ efforts. With Trump, who has dismissed climate change, in charge of the world’s leading economy, those experts fear other countries, especially China, could use it as an excuse to ease off their own efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Simon Stiell, the U.N. climate change executive secretary, held out hope that the U.S. would continue to embrace the global clean energy boom.
“Ignoring it only sends all that vast wealth to competitor economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse," Stiell said. “The door remains open to the Paris Agreement, and we welcome constructive engagement from any and all countries.”
Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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