WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Cooper Kose is an Australian tennis player who just turned 15 two weeks ago, has braces on his teeth and plenty of big plans in his head. He was a hitting partner for
Coco Gauff and others at the Australian Open and signed on the eve of Wimbledon with the agency co-founded by
Osaka, a four-time major champion and former No. 1-ranked player whose group also represents
2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios and Anna Kalinskaya, practiced with Kose in Los Angeles in April at UCLA.
“I thought Cooper was a really good player. He kind of reminds me of Nick, a little bit — just with the way he swings on his forehand. And then I asked him who his favorite player was, and it was Nick, so it made sense,” Osaka said Sunday at the All England Club, where
the year’s third Grand Slam tournament begins on Monday. “It’s going to be cool to watch him grow.”
And make no mistake: Kose is still growing. He said he wears a size 14 shoe and is already 1.88 meters tall, which is about 6-foot-2, and doctors have told him there’s more to come. That size helps him generate power on the serve — which both he and 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Chris Eubanks, who hit with Kose in Australia in January, say reaches 120 mph (200 kph) — and forehands that are the foundations of a game Kose calls “pretty complete, to be honest.”
“He’s like a raw, uncut gem, with a lot of belief in himself,” said Stuart Duguid, Osaka’s longtime agent who co-founded the management group EVOLVE with her two years ago. “Our theory was if — if — he can cut it, he’ll be the type of player we want to represent.”
