Gauff, 20, became the youngest woman tennis player to win her first Grand Slam singles and doubles in 20 years title after she fellow tour member Katerina Siniakova defeated Italians Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Court Philippe Chatrier at the French Open on Sunday. 

Coco Gauff accomplishes another momentous tennis feat

With the conquest, Gauff becomes the youngest player to win Grand Slam singles and doubles titles since Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2005, according to Tennis.com. 

This was Gauff’s third trip to a Grand Slam doubles finals, losing the previous two at Roland Garros in Paris in 2022 and the U.S. Open in New York in 2021.

“Third time’s a charm. Thank you, Katerina, for playing with me. We decided two days before the tournament to play together,” Gauff said during her victory speech. “Thank you to the fans. I know 11:30 Sunday morning is early for most people. It’s early for me.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit RollingOut

That was eight years ago. Back when she was still just a teenager. Still kind of “ditzy.”

Those days are long gone. The evidence isn’t just on Biles drivers’ license or her marriage certificate but in how the now 27-year-old is able to see beyond herself. The tunnel vision that most great athletes have in pursuit of greatness has fallen away.

And maybe that’s the biggest difference between the national title the gymnastics star won on Sunday night — her ninth, this one with an all-around total of 119.750 — and her first over a decade ago.

The defining moment of Biles’ victory wasn’t a twist, a turn or a jump, but a walk.

It came early on, when Biles watched 2020 Olympic champion and good friend Sunisa Lee spin awkwardly in the air during her vault and landed on her back, a mixture of surprise and fear spreading across her face.

“I was kind of thinking that this was over,” Lee said.

Then Biles appeared at her side, unprompted. She knew exactly where Lee was in that moment better than anyone.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, a similar wayward vault by Biles started a chain of events that led to her withdrawing from multiple competitions and dragging the discussion on the importance of mental health front and center.

Watching Lee, who has spent most of the last two years battling kidney issues that have made her weight yo-yo and complicated her training, try to gather herself, Biles left her World Champions Centre teammates and gave Lee the kind of support Biles relied on so heavily back in Japan.

“I know how traumatizing it is, especially on a big stage like this,” Biles said. “And I didn’t want her to get in her head, so we just went and talked about it.”

The two retreated off the floor to talk, with Biles reminding Lee she “could do hard things.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Dorothy Jean Tillman II’s participation in Arizona State University’s May 6 commencement was the latest step on a higher-education journey the Chicago teen started when she took her first college course at age 10.

In between came associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

When Tillman successfully defended her dissertation in December, she became the youngest person — at age 17 — to earn a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health at Arizona State, associate professor Leslie Manson told ABC’s “Good Morning America” for a story Monday.

“It’s a wonderful celebration, and we hope … that Dorothy Jean inspires more students,” Manson said. “But this is still something so rare and unique.”

Tillman, called “Dorothy Jeanius” by family and friends, is the granddaughter of former Chicago Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman.

When most students are just learning to navigate middle school, her mother enrolled Tillman in classes through the College of Lake County in northern Illinois, where she majored in psychology and completed her associate’s degree in 2016, according to her biography.

Tillman earned a bachelor’s in humanities from New York’s Excelsior College in 2018. About two years later, she earned her master’s of science from Unity College in Maine before being accepted in 2021 into Arizona State’s Behavioral Health Management Program.

Most of her classwork was done remotely and online. Tillman did attend her Arizona State commencement in person and addressed the graduating class during the ceremony.

Tillman told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she credits her grandmother and trusting in her mother’s guidance for her educational pursuits and successes.

“Everything that we were doing didn’t seem abnormal to me or out of the ordinary until it started getting all of the attention,” said Tillman, now 18.

There have been sacrifices, though.

“I didn’t have the everyday school things like homecoming dances or spirit weeks or just school pictures and things like that … that kind of create unity with my peers,” she said.

She has found time to dance and do choreography. Tillman also is founder and chief executive of the Dorothyjeanius STEAM Leadership Institute. The program includes summer camps designed to help young people in the arts and STEM subjects.

She said her plans include public speaking engagements and fundraising for the camp, which Tillman said she hopes to franchise one day.

Tillman is motivated and has innovative ideas, said Manson, adding, “And truly, I think what is inspiring is that she embodies that meaning of being a true leader.”

Jimalita Tillman said she is most impressed with her daughter’s ability to show herself and her successes with grace, but to also understand when to “put her foot down” when choosing between social outings and her education.

On Thursday, Theresa Claiborne, who became the first Black woman to be a pilot in the United States Air Force, retired from flying after 34 years with United Airlines.

“I’ve had a great career,” Claiborne told CNN Travel before she set off for her final flight. “And it’s time for me to park the brakes for the final time on a big airplane.”

The trailblazing aviator also turned 65 on Sunday.

“Birthday mood, I’m 65 y’all!” she wrote in the caption of a post on Instagram.

Claiborne’s aviation career began on June 20, 1981, when she was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, having belonged to the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps in college. When she graduated from her flight training, she didn’t realize she had made history.

“I’m very happy I didn’t know because I think that at the age of 22, I don’t think I would have been able to handle that pressure,” she noted in a recent video by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.