15-year-old Coco Gauff will be playing her maiden Federation Cup matches when her side USA takes on Latvia from Friday. (Getty Images)
Coco Gauff, Serena Williams, and the rest of the USA team were seen practising ahead of their Federation Cup Qualifying matches against Latvia starting this Friday at the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett (WA).
15-year-old Gauff and legend Serena were joined by teammates World No.18 Alison Riske and veteran Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who all took turns to undergo practice for the upcoming clashes.
However, there was a major absence as reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin was not seen anywhere and is yet to join the team that will take on the Latvians on February 7 and 8 respectively.
Kenin was earlier included in the national side along with the rest of them and has now reached a career-best ranking of 7 according to the WTA after her maiden Grand Slam win in Australia.
Meanwhile, Coco and Serena, who share the same coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, were seen training together and having a bit of banter in between the practice sessions.
38-year-old icon Serena will be entering her fourth decade as a Federation Cup player for USA when the qualifying matches commence.
The 23-time Grand Slam singles winner made her debut back in 1999 during USA’s semi-final win over Italy. Williams has a 100% singles record in the Fed Cup, winning 13 out of 13 rubbers.
However, despite her long association with the event, she hasn’t been a regular customer at the Federation Cup, playing only in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018 before.
Serena’s teammate, Kenin has a Fed Cup singles record of 1-3 while teenager Gauff is representing her senior national side for the first time in the Federation Cup.
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