By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday July 2, 2019
Emotions are a big part of tennis, both for players and the spectators. Add the media into that equation because I know for sure that I was close to tears while sitting out on No.1 Court and watching Coco Gauff finish off her momentous victory over the legendary Venus Williams on Day 1 of Wimbledon.
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I don’t have horses in the race—I can’t, that’s not in my job description, but my heart recognizes true and unfettered emotional gold, and can’t help but react accordingly.
So this is the state I found myself in as I contemplated the origins of Coco Gauff, a young woman that I have made a habit out of watching at Wimbledon ever since last year. It’s a fledgling habit, but while watching her boldly put the finishing touches on her 6-4 6-4 victory over the five-time Wimbledon champion I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the beginning of a regular summer affair.
In no way, shape or form did I expect things to be moving so quickly for Gauff. Four weeks ago in Paris I watched her fall in the second round of qualifying to Kaja Juvan of Slovenia (My habit happens at other Grand Slam venues as well). 6-3 6-3 was the score and while observing the match I found myself wondering what would come next for Gauff. Still outside the Top 300 and barely 15, I didn’t even think she’d get a wild card to Wimbledon qualies. She was beaten soundly by Juvan and looked bitterly disappointed as she walked off the court.
Would it be off to the ITF circuit for some more seasoning? That would be fine. In her first year as a pro, Gauff has been solid, even managing her first career WTA-level win at Miami, where she was also given a wild card, but not beat Venus Williams in front of a packed No.1 Court on her Wimbledon debut solid.
Jeez. Who is that solid at 15, right?
Apparently Coco, Miss Mulatto and Avengers: Endgame fan, is.
Fans were given yet another glimpse of the precocious American’s potential on Monday as Gauff morphed into a superpower-packing queen of clutch with all the pressure of the world staring at her from the cavernous No.1 court’s green padded seats. Apparently, the bigger and the more electric the stage, the bigger and more electric her strokes become. Gauff routinely powered booming serves into the body of Williams and held serve in nine of ten service games in the contest.
Suddenly, the young woman that looked so lost during her qualifying loss to Juvan in Paris was feeling her oats, surging, and emanating a larger-than-life on-court comportment as the stakes in a tense battle with her 39-year-old idol were raised late in the second set.
Given all that we know and all that we envisage for Gauff—she has inspired this "hype" by becoming the second-youngest player to ever win the Girls title at Roland Garros and the youngest Open era player to ever qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon—it was hope that colored my experience of watching her against Williams in such a grand tennis setting.
She may not become the next great American star, but then again, she may.
Not only did Gauff play with poise, gusto and energy, she was playing her idol, and while watching I found it hard to resist reflecting on how a younger Venus Williams shocked the tennis world when she first came to Wimbledon in the late 1990's.
When Williams and her little sister Serena burst onto the scene more than two decades ago (the point has regularly been made this week that Venus had already owned four of her seven Grand Slam titles by the time Gauff was born) there were no five-time Wimbledon champions of color for them to look up that actively played on the WTA Tour. There were no heavily decorated and beloved champions of equality and entrepreneurship to be found in the locker room. No barrier-crashing role models that played with a type of power that would transform our ideas of what is possible in this sport and in this world.
There was Venus, Serena, Richard and Oracene. The Williams against the tennis world, and the Williams were winning.
These days it’s different. Gauff and so many other young women—of all races and nationalities—who aspire to tennis greatness have the Williams sisters to look up to. They use their professionalism and powerful womanhood as inspiration. It can be done. You can be a force. You can own the stage.
And it was Gauff who owned the stage on Monday. Serving for the match Williams fought the kid tooth and nail and even earned a break point after saving three match points. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, the silence deafening between points, the uproar elevated with each winner struck. Then Gauff, at 5-4 ad-out and in serious trouble of losing a grip on the match, reared back and fired a 108 MPH second serve that Williams could only deflect wide of the tram.
Read it again—Gauff reared back and fired a 108 MPH second serve—and weep.
Gauff took the next two points to clinch the victory and then came another opportunity to weep. She shook hands with Williams and knelt before her chair and prayed.
The lasting image that will forever be embedded in my mind was Gauff in that moment, overwhelmed and overjoyed, having the presence of mind to hang on to Williams' hand at net and take the time to tell her how much what she has done for tennis and for aspiring girls like herself was appreciated.
I could see it happening as I stood to peer over the packed bowl of applauding spectators, I could tell it was something impressive, some kind of beyond-her-years recognition of what’s REALLY important.
“I wasn't apologizing,” Gauff said of her brief interlude with Williams after the contest. “I was just telling her thank you for everything she's done for the sport. She's been an inspiration for many people. I was just really telling her thank you.”
Yes, the victory mattered, but for Gauff it wouldn’t be overshadowed by the respect. Those two things went hand-in-hand. This was no ordinary changing-of-the guard. It was something heavier, purer, more beautiful and sublime.
“I met her before, but I didn't really have the guts to say anything. I mean, now or never,” Gauff added.
Years from now, will we look back upon this match as pivotal? Will it hold the same meaning or even more, than it does right now?
Not important. What matters, at least to me, is the promise it ushers in, and the fact that Venus and Serena have spawned the hope that could and probably will propel the next generation forward.