I had been waiting for Coco Gauff to break through and she finally did at the US Open! She had been taking quite a few knocks recently, many of them from opponents like Karolina Muchova, who called her play one-dimensional after going down in straight sets. Well, there was nothing one-dimensional about the way Coco overcame Aryna Sabalenka in the finals. It looked like the Belarussian would simply overpower Gauff after cruising through the first set, but Coco readjusted her game and swept the remaining sets to capture the title much to everyone's delight except Sabalenka who was filmed destroying her tennis rackets in the gym after the match.
It was a tough loss for Aryna, who felt she was being unfairly discriminated against because she hails from Belarus. Not that she spends much time there but it isn't an association you want to have in the wake of the war in Ukraine. She has tried to distance herself from it but to no avail. She is viewed as the "bad girl." Without over psychoanalyzing, I think she has deeper seated problems after watching this display.
She had to know the crowd would be rooting for Coco given this was her home court, so to speak. Coco hails from Atlanta, Georgia, but for the fortnight she was adopted by New York fans hoping to see an American breakthrough after 6 long years since Sloane Stephens surprised everyone by winning the tournament in 2017 only to never be heard from again.
What I like most about Coco is her determination. She could have easily given up after the first set, but she fought hard to take a 3-2 lead in the second set and never looked back. She did it without grunting or complaining about line calls. She simply held her ground and watched Aryna implode on the other side of the net as she could no longer dominate Coco with her 130 mph serve.
Women's tennis has come a long way since the 70s when it used to be sponsored by Virginia Slims cigarettes, promoting a new era of equal rights with women getting the same purse as men at major tournaments. The US Open was the first to do so in 1973, and a young, bright Coco tipped her racket to Billie Jean King after collecting her $3 million check.
Yet in Billie Jean's day, women were still expected to wear frilly bloomers under their short skirts and be ladies both on and off the court. The most popular tennis player of the time was Chris Evert, who epitomized this Barbie-doll aesthetic although never embraced it. She and Martina Navratilova were cast as mortal enemies by the media largely because of their differing styles and approaches to the game, but in reality have long been dear friends.
Navratilova suffered heavily for it, much like Sabalenka feels she does today. Yet, Martina played through it and rose to become one of the greatest players of all time. If it wasn't for her constant mood swings she would have won much more than 18 grand slam titles, but then one can forgive Martina given the abuse she had to face in her time. It wasn't easy being from a communist-block country, a lesbian and a serve-and-volley tennis player. Women were expected to hew the baseline, pounding out long rallies so that you could see their frilly panties longer. Without meaning to, Navratilova revolutionized the game and eventually earned her place in tennis history.
While women have become stronger, more athletic and refuse to bow to conventional feminine roles, few have adopted Martina's serve-and-volley game. We have seen some mighty big serves like that of Venus Williams who stormed through the US Open field in 2000 and 2001, but even she stuck to the baseline for most of the game. To be fair few men play serve-and-volley as well. I suppose the big head rackets make it easier to field big serves, so you clip off the returns that fall short but otherwise rely on powerful groundstrokes to overcome your opponent.
Venus would soon be upstaged by her sister Serena who came to personify the athletic tennis player with a powerful figure to match her powerful game. For a while she was virtually unbeatable but then the abusive coverage took its toll as Serena was not considered lady like. Instead, the world fell in love with Maria Sharapova, a taller more beautiful Chris Evert who beamed a thousand watt smile to the camera. When Maria beat Serena at Wimbledon in 2004, the media loved it! But, Serena would dominate Maria ever after, winning 19 of their next 20 matches.
There were others of course but they have been forgotten as Serena so dominated the game in her quest for Margaret Court's mythical 24 grand slams, falling one shy. Needless to say Serena has been a major influence on women's tennis. She embraced the adversity and rose to the top of the game. Even the men heralded her. Eventually, the press came to accept her for the great tennis player and person that she is.
Still, the flirtation with the glamorous Slavic women persists. There seems to be no end to them although none have yet to match Sharapova's presence. She won five grand slams and countless other WTA titles and became the godmother, so to speak, of this current generation of Slavic beauties that seem to win every other grand slam but rarely the same girl twice. It's like they are interchangeable in a sadly Aryan way.
Well, Aryna is different but not in a good way, at least not as far as the press is concerned. She looks more like the East German athlete of the communist block rather than a long lanky Slavic beauty like Iga Swiatek of Poland. Everyone loves Iga. No one loves Aryna. I suppose that is why Navratilova has embraced Aryna and will probably try to help her through these tough times as she did Svetlana Kuznetsova, who similarly didn't fit the beautiful Slavic prototype. Whether it will help or not remains to be seen. It is very hard to overcome this open hostility.
In the meantime, Coco has her day and by the looks of it will have many more days as she has an seemingly effortless style of play that should endure her for many years to come. Not only that but she is exceedingly aware of the role she has come to occupy in the Gen Z world we are now part of. She does so with a grace and elegance the media can't help but fawn over, making her the new favorite.
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