Coco Gauff’s journey to the U.S. Open finals and the new generation of tennis

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The U.S. Open has been heating up with surprising upsets heading into the finals, as well as the soaring temperatures across the East Coast, prompting officials to partially close the stadium roof in New York.

  And while European players have dominated the top spots in years past, this year, it's the Americans who have taken the courts by storm, specifically Black American players who are making history.

  To talk about this continental and cultural shift in tennis, I'm joined by Ava Wallace, who covers tennis for The Washington Post and joins us now from the U.S. Open in New York.

  Ava, it's great to see you.

  And I have to start off with the name everyone's talking about, Coco Gauff. She's 19 years old. She has now made it to the U.S. Open finals. It's being called the summer of Coco. What's behind the incredible success she's seeing right now?

• Ava Wallace, The Washington Post:

  Yes, that's something that Coco Gauff doesn't quite have an answer to herself.

  You kind of fast — or rewind two months to a first round upset loss she had at Wimbledon, where she was in the press room afterwards telling us she had to go back to the drawing board. She did that a little bit. She brought in two new coaches, worked on a forehand that was kind of giving her trouble, and also had an attitude shift, where she's told us she's having more fun on court.

  She's a little bit more relaxed, taking some pressure off herself, and that has brought wins. So she's won two tournaments heading into the U.S. Open, and she is on fire here, thinking her way through matches, using her athleticism, which is among the best on the women's tour, and she finds herself in her first U.S. Open final.

• Amna Nawaz:

  She's also the first American woman to make it to those finals since Serena Williams.

  What do you think? Can she win at all?

• Ava Wallace:

  I do. I think she has a chance based on the way that she's playing.

  She has a really tough competitor, maybe her toughest yet, in a pretty stern lineup there in Aryna Sabalenka, who's just absolutely excellent on hard courts, has 11 titles already on hard court to her name, is a really hard-hitter, and is definitely going to challenge Coco and have her running across the court, for sure.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Coco was also part of this foursome that made history for U.S. tennis earlier this week.

  Four Black American players, Coco Gauff, Frances Tiafoe, Madison Keys, and Ben Shelton, reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals. That's the first time that's happened in the sport's Open era going back to 1968.

  Just, Ava, give us some context here. How big a milestone is that?

• Ava Wallace:

  It certainly felt like a really big moment. I was out there on Arthur Ashe Stadium for Frances Tiafoe when he played Ben Shelton.

  And it wasn't just a moment. James Blake was there doing a coin toss. And they were, of course, playing on a court named for Arthur Ashe. And it felt a little different than things usually do at the U.S. Open. There was a lot of rap and hip-hop music playing, which you do not hear usually at tennis tournaments.

  Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton absolutely took the moment and kind of ran with it. They were razzing up the crowd. They played with so much fight and heart, and it was really excellent to see. Of course, these late-night matches on Arthur Ashe Stadium tend to get pretty loud. So it was a very, very fun atmosphere.

• Amna Nawaz:

  They tend to get loud, and they have been very hot lately too. We have been reporting on these extraordinarily high temperatures and high humidity.

  How is that having an impact on the players and the matches?

• Ava Wallace:

  Yes, it's creating for some dramatic matches, for sure, and getting everyone a little bit more stressed out. Technically, it kind of hurts players' serves.

  They're talking about how it's actually physically harder to grip a racket when you're dripping in sweat. And then, of course, it's tiring a lot of players out. Coco Gauff, in her semifinal, had a 40-shot rally, which it lasted longer than a minute. It was incredibly tiring just to watch.

  But she won that, and she was telling herself: I knew I didn't have another one in me, so I had to win it right there.

  And she won the match next point.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I have only got about less than a minute left. But I have to ask you because you're there. There's a lot of conversation around the new generation of fans who are now following tennis because of this new generation of players.

  How have you seen that show up at the Open?

• Ava Wallace:

  Oh, you see it in the celebrities, and you always see people in the stands.

  Anna Wintour is always here, Spike Lee. You have kind of got the old standbys. But I have never seen Justin and Hailey Bieber out. You have got a ton of NBA players who are out here. Jimmy Butler's been out here pretty much every day. So it's kind of interesting to see a different kind of celebrity, a new generation of celebrity that Gen Z people know, millennials know.

  It's really cool to see that shift and track it kind of through the celebrities in the stands.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is Ava Wallace, who covers tennis for The Washington Post, joining us from the U.S. Open in New York.

  Ava, great to see you. Thanks for your time.

• Ava Wallace:

  Thanks for having me.