Gainer and Ruffels lead Evian Championship: From the tennis court to golf

Golf wasn’t the first love of Cara Gainer or Gabriela Ruffels, who grew up with the dream of being professional tennis players and were close to achieving it. Now, both are on the verge of achieving an unexpected victory in an important tournament of their adopted sport. Gainer, an English golfer ranked 129th, and Ruffels, an Australian ranked 71st, will be part of the final group at the Evian Championship on Sunday, after a standout performance in the third round of the fourth major of the year in women’s golf. On a splendid Saturday at the Evian Resort Golf Club, Gainer signed a card of 64 strokes, seven under par, to ascend to 11 under par for the week. Ruffels, with a round of 66 strokes, joined the leader.

However, the competition in the standings is of high quality.

Minjee Lee, world number 6 and recent winner of the Women’s PGA Championship, shot a 66 and was one stroke behind the leaders, in her attempt to become the first woman since Inbee Park in 2013 to win consecutive major titles. Jeeno Thitikul (67), world number 2 and still without winning a major, tied at 10 under par with Lee, along with Somi Lee (71), leader of the second round, and Grace Kim (70). All of them will put pressure on Gainer and Ruffels, who have closely followed the Wimbledon tennis championship that is taking place this week and finished their third rounds just before the start of the women’s singles final between Amanda Anisimova and Iga Swiatek. They will surely see it.

Tennis was, I suppose, my first love. I still enjoy it very much. I don’t play anymore, but I love watching it. Obviously, Wimbledon is on this week, so that’s my night.

Cara Gainer

Like Gainer, Ruffels had a tennis coach and former player father. Ray Ruffels was a singles semi-finalist at the Australian Open on three occasions and reached the mixed doubles finals at Wimbledon and the US Open with Billie Jean King in 1978. Gabriela Ruffels was so good, as the number 1 junior in Australia, that she won many ITF junior events in Europe, but she also took up golf around the age of 14 and was the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion in 2019. Before coming to the French Alps, she made a stop at Wimbledon with her boyfriend as a guest of the retired Australian doubles great Todd Woodbridge.

It was a very cool experience. It was great to relax and not touch the clubs for a few days and overcome the jet lag. It seems to have worked this week.

Gabriela Ruffels