At the U.S. Open, Coco Gauff and Company Stake Their Claim

Directed by Coco Gounds and a cast of carismatics, the tennis reached an optimal point in this year’s US Open with a diverse old combination of old and now, pointing out that the game is newly energized and firmly energized as it enters a new era.

Do not serene Williams. No Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

No problem.

It is true that Novak Djokovic, who won the 24th main title of his career on Sunday by beating Daniil Medvedev in the final of male singles, is still performing his magical act. But conventional thinking argued that tennis would be in trouble when the legendary champions who supported the professional game for approximately two decades was to leave the game and mass.

In this tournament, Goef’s dominant arrival, which won the title of female singles on Saturday night, along with memorable presentations by Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, showed that thinking badly.

In the National Tennis Center Billie Jean King, a quartet of legends no longer suffocated the game, eclipsing the motion of progress sometimes stagnant of young players. You could feel it on the grounds, which were filled with so many spectators who seemed that there was no room to move without dying on the shoulder. This year’s event established assistance records almost every day.

“It is incredible to see a change in personalities,” said Kate Koza, a Brooklynite and regular at the open since 2016, echoing a feeling that I heard repeatedly last the two -week race of the event. “We are not only seeing the same faces with the same mythical story.”

Tennis is changing, and no player incorporated that more than the 19 -year -old heel, who since then broke into the scene four years ago with a first -round victory over Venus Williams in Wimbledon, seemed destined for this moment.

In the two weeks at the US Open, she grew completely in herself. His obedient parents, always by his side, all the thesis, with his father as a coach, gave him extra freedom and fell enough in the background. Gobinata, making it clear that she is now her own wife. Think about how he demanded that his new coach, Brad Gilbert, mitigates his chatterbox instructions lasting his fourth round fight against Caroline Wozniacki.

“Please, stop,” he instructed, adding a firmness that showed that she was the one that dictated her action in this event. “Stop speaking!”

In Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, he ordered the stage.

She leaned at her speed and improved the right to win four three sets duration in the tournament and played as a veteran cunning in the most moving moments.

She won energy from the crowd: Look, there are Barack and Michelle Obama, and there, Justin Bieber. “I saw almost all the celebrities who showed on that screen,” he said, adding that he embraced the moment and promised to “win in front of these people.”

While burning a final pass shot beyond Aryna Sabalenka to take the title, falling on her back and then kneeling to soak up at the time through tears, Gobef claimed the eternal space in collective memory. Looking from a boxes back from the central court, I felt chicken and thick skin. The mass stadium shook and balanced, most of the 23000 fans inside the stadium on their feet, cheering and singing. They wanted this moment, this champion, this new beginning.

Since Serena Williams won the first important title as a 17 -year -old in the 1999 Open, the Open has had other black champions. His sister Venus in 2000 and 2001. Sloane Stephens in 2017. Naomi Osaka, who is black and Asian, in 2018 and 2020.

But Gound is the first in a new era, a new champion in a new tennis world, one without Serena’s shadow. The torch has been approved.

Of course, most fans hated seeing no. 1 seed, Carlos Alcaraz, Wimbledon’s champion, bothers Medvedev in the semifinals. The confrontation of dreams had been a championship between Alcaraz and Djokovic, holders of the most popular rivalry of male tennis.

But if we have learned something from the Lockdown grip that have had that four great players have had in tennis, it is that the expected course possible becomes monotonous. Look at it in this way: if Djokovic and Alcaraz finally face in the US Open, the fact that they barely denied a Duel of Prado in 2023 will make their partner much sweeter.

The US Open last year, with its celebration of retirement with retirement and career of Serena, changed the page. This year’s tournament closed the book and put it back on the shelf.

You could feel the exuberance in the air from the beginning, an energy that told a story: Djokovic remains, the same as always, but all the others in both fields seemed freed by losing the shadow of Serena, Nadal and Federer.

The quarterfinals presented not only Alcaraz but also two American resurgents of their 20 years, Taylor Fritz and French Tiafoe, a fans favorite for their willingness to connect with the crowd.

As to announce the fact that black players are a budding force in the game of men and women, Tiafoe and Shelton became the first African -American men to face each Eather in the last eight of an important championship.

That was the only remarkable note at the foot. The fast ascent Shelton, 20, was the young American to reach a semifinal of the United States Open since 1992. Hi, Tiafoe to get there, surprising the crowds with 149 miles per hour and competition in the face that did not show that it was not what that wound was not shown that did not show a challenge was Djokovic.

After beating Shelton in a very close victory and sets to advance to the male final, Djokovic imitated the celebration gesture that Shelton had shown throughout the tournament after the victory, an imaginary phone in the ear, which later crashed, as to say, “game, set, conversation, conversation.”

The wise teacher remains, still willing to give young people for a little more.