September 4th, 2024

Gauff, Tiafoe go different directions at U.S. Open

Francis Tiafoe and Coco Gauff are at opposite ends of the U.S Open Tennis Championships spectrum, with Tiafoe riding high and Gauff bowing out. Gauff, the defending champion and third seed in this year’s tournament, exited with an embarrassing showing against 13th-seed Emma Navarro (6-3, 4-6, 6-3) in a fourth-round match. This is the latest in a series of early (for her) exits in recent weeks, including her lackluster showing during her third-round exit from the Paris Olympics before going 1-2 at hard court tune-up events before arriving in New York to defend her 2023 title.

It was just a year ago that Gauff, upon winning the Open, took the low road by stating that her critics, in her words, ‘only add fuel to my fire.’ I stated then that she had not accomplished enough in her career to bring such heat on herself. She has played up and down since her 2023 Open title, with some very disappointing defeats along the way. This latest setback to Navarro — her teammate on the U.S. Olympic team — is an example. Sixty — count them, 60  — unforced errors, a staggering 29 on her forehand and including 19 double-faults, 11 in the final set, tell the story of Gauff’s recent meltdown. But this is no fluke for Navarro, who also eliminated Gauff from the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament a few weeks ago.

I do not know who has ‘the ear’ of Gauff, but whoever it is should be telling her that she is in desperate need of mental toughness and maturity during the high-stress moments of competition in her young tennis career. Note to Gauff: True greatness is achieved in any endeavor when one possesses the “poise under fire” to withstand the heat of such fire while performing at one’s best. I pray she learns that lesson sooner than later.

In other action, 17th-seed Madison Keys fought through a tough three-set match before falling to 33rd-seed Elise Mertens (6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4). Their two-hour-and-54-minute third-round match was decided by erratic play from Keys, who committed 69 unforced errors, offsetting her 39 winning shots. After leading 3-2 in the third set, Keys took a medical timeout to have a trainer check out her heel, which appeared to be blistered. She taped it up and resumed match play. The Floridian went up 40-love and appeared to be in command, but dropped the next 10 points and went down 5-3, losing the third set 6-4.

On the men’s side

In men’s U.S. Open play, 20th-seeded Francis Tiafoe moved an inch closer to elite status as a Black male tennis player, with victories over 13th-seed Ben Shelton and 28th-seed Alexei Popyrin (who had stunned defending champion Novak Djokovic in third-round play (6-4, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3), to advance to his third straight U.S. Open quarterfinal. His thrilling five-set triumph (6-4, 5-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3) over the 21-year-old Shelton was a cherished ‘get-back’ moment for him following his defeat to Shelton in last year’s Open. The two Black men put on a dazzling display of shot-making throughout their four-set match, described by tennis analysts as ‘some of the best tennis of this year’s Open.” Shelton is the “up-and-coming star,” while the 26-year-old Tiafoe has been knocking at the door of major tennis championship glory for years, with critics saying that his time is running out.

Both Tiafoe and the younger Shelton are trying to approach the legacy of the immortal Arthur Ashe, the last Black man to win the U.S. Open title, in 1968. On that glorious day, Sept. 9, 1968, Ashe became the first Black man to ever win a Grand Slam tennis title. That same year, he also won the U.S. Amateur Championship, becoming the only player to ever win both events in the same year. The tennis and social activism legacy of Arthur Ashe is the reason that his name is on the main stadium of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York.

tennis, U.S. Open