19-year-old Cori “Coco” Gauff is the 2023 U.S. Open women’s champion. She was inspired by Serena and Venus Williams to pick up a tennis racquet, and she acknowledges because of them she is where she is as a tennis player. But that doesn’t mean Gauff will be them or win like them. She is going to be the first Coco Gauff, and everyone should be prepared for that.
Inspired By The Greats
“Yes, it’s crazy. I mean, they’re the reason why I have this trophy today, to be honest. They have allowed me to believe in this dream, you know, growing up. You know, there wasn’t too many just Black tennis players dominating the sport,” Gauff said following her title win. “It was literally, at that time when I was younger, it was just them that I can remember. Obviously more came because of their legacy. So it made the dream more believable. But all the things that they had to go through, they made it easier for someone like me to do this.”
Gauff is the youngest American woman to win the title since a 17-year-old Serena won it in 1999, the first of her 23 career Grand Slam singles titles. Gauff has been linked to the Williams’ sisters ever since she burst into the public consciousness at Wimbledon in 2019 where at age 15 she advanced to the fourth round, defeating five-time Wimbledon champion Venus along the way.
Anytime a teenager takes down a great former champion, everyone takes notice. Diehard tennis fans had known of Gauff’s super successful junior career, so it was less of a surprise to that community.
But diehard fans of any sport don’t drive ratings and virality. It’s the casual sports fan who is drawn in by a compelling figure or story that creates the ground swell of excitement that rocks social media and leads segments on sports shows.
Every year since then, whenever she played in a Grand Slam she was “Coco Gauff the 15-year-old who beat Venus and made the fourth round.”
“It’s been a long journey to this point. I wasn’t a fully developed player, and I still think I have a lot of development to go at that moment. I think people were putting a lot of pressure on me to win. I felt that at 15 I had to win a slam at 15. I think that was, you know, not the mistake, because everything led to this moment so there was no mistakes. But that was, like, a little bit of the pressure that I was feeling.”
The Williams sisters are tennis royalty, so it’s easy to see why fans would think Gauff was ready to pick up their mantle and run with it. But those are unfair burdens and expectations.
When Serena and Venus stepped onto the scene nobody thought they would become who they are, except maybe their father Richard Williams. But even he didn’t think GOAT for Serena.
Walking Her Own Path
Back in 2017, when she was just 12 and winning big junior titles, the comparisons to Serena and Venus were already beginning. But she had the presence of mind then to make a short but prescient statement.
“I am not going to be the next Serena Williams,” her old Instagram account read, “I am going to be the first Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff.”
That awareness and intelligence has only grown as she’s gotten older. At 19, she handles herself like a well grounded mature adult. Throughout the course of the tournament as she handled her press obligations, her responses were always insightful, thoughtful and full of clarity and purpose.
No 19-year-old should be that self-aware and mature, the Williams sisters weren’t as grounded at that age. They were far more guarded and closed off when talking to the press.
But they had to be. Their boldness in a lilly white space was the first of its kind. The mostly white tennis media were constantly trying to get inside the aura around the Williams sisters. Their parents were fiercely protective and would not allow the media to know anything they didn’t want them to.
Because they were the first, players like Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, and Gauff could be themselves.
Gauff has a social consciousness and an understanding of the larger world that she lives in and the issues that matter. She is bold and confident in speaking out for what she believes and fears no repercussions.
She will be in contention to win more Grand Slam titles, but 23 is a high bar to set and one we shouldn’t even be thinking about. Seven, the amount Venus has won, is difficult enough.
In the Open era (1968) the list of women that have won seven or more Grand Slam singles titles has eight names. Eight. Dominating this game isn’t easy.
Revel in Gauff’s ascendence, as of Monday she is the new world No. 3, and this tremendously hard-fought first Grand Slam title.
Recognize the legacy that enabled her to dream this big, that started all the way back with Althea Gibson, to Zina Garrison, the Williams sisters, and now to Gauff.
Realize that Gauff’s win will inspire some little girl, from some town or city, who we haven’t heard from … yet.
And remember your 2023 U.S. Open women’s champion is Cori “Coco” Gauff. Not Serena or Venus Williams, or anyone else. And that’s OK.
