Coco Gauff’s US Open run is showing tennis’ next generation still has to go through her

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 01: Coco Gauff of the United States celebrates match point after defeating Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey during their Women's Singles First Round match on Day Three of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 01, 2026 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. | Getty Images On Saturday night of this past Labor Day weekend, American sports media exploded over a controversy in the fresh college football season, after Michigan beat Western Michigan on a dubious last-second play. It was a reminder that, for all the chokehold that the NFL has on national culture, there’s something about the raw nervy emotion of the more amateur side of competition—a real hothouse spirit—that captures an equally timeless section of the sports-loving world’s attention. NCAA athletes are too young to be the best at their sport, but they still play it in a primetime kind of way. Simultaneously, under a more global eye, an 18 and 21-year-old pair of women were playing tennis at a world-class level. Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala was up against her close friend Iva Jovic, a first-generation American with Serbian and Croatian parents who started their family in California. Their three-set match, an instant classic that figures to be a key text in the onrushing future of women’s tennis, oozed the same kind of frazzled, uneasy energy that the best of college sports features. The difference, in professional tennis, is that the barriers to main-stage entry are diminished: if a late teenager and a recent teenager are among the best twenty players in the world at this game, their rankings and opportunities will reflect this, and they’ll get TV time under the same bright New York lights that multi-decade champion Novak Djokovic recently melted under. It was Eala’s story, coming into the match, that had become one of defining narratives of women’s tennis in 2026. It was just a year ago, at the US Open, that Eala achieved her first grand slam victory—the first any Filipino player had ever achieved, at that point—only to lose in the second round. So few saw it coming when she started surging hard this year, finishing consistently deep at non-slam tournaments, a run that crested into a round-of-16 finish at Wimbledon. Her inspiring play on the British grass truly caught the universal eye when she pulled off a shocking upset of the world No. 8, six-time slam champ Iga Swiatek, in the third round. Since then, millions have come to appreciate Eala’s infectiously panic-inducing style. Standing higher up on the court than most on the tour do—a tendency she attributes to her early play on local Philippines courts, where space beyond the lines was limited—she returns balls more quickly than her opponents are used to, pushing them into a state of frenzy. What boggles their minds further is her unorthodox service approach, with a second serve that creeps over the net with abundant curve, looping broadly at speeds beneath 70 miles per hour. This fast/slow cocktail of an Eala match creates a strategic dysphoria that WTA contenders will struggle with for years to come. But it was her sometimes double partner, Jovic, who had the medicine for Eala Fever on Saturday. In a narrow 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory, she put the ball into just enough of the narrow trajectories that Eala left her. As much as the match was characterized by the incredible defense and shotmaking of both players, it was also shaped by the fact that neither player can yet dominate with their serve; which, luckily for the audience, means more and longer rallies, and a series of showy escalations between players who’ve clearly developed intense competitive intimacy over many practice sessions together. Sports rarely give us this fusion of personal familiarity, skill, and mythological ascendancy. The emotional turnaround, for Jovic, would be rough: the prize for beating Eala was facing Coco Gauff on Monday night. Quite recently, the 22-year-old Gauff was on the newer side herself, climbing up the ranks in her fledgling and precarious way. But this summer, Gauff has allowed her fans to enjoy victories with lower heart rates, as she’s found a colder, more clinical level, marked by a vastly improved serve and more aggression at the net for easy points that quickly rack up into quick games, and plenty of two-set victories—coming into the matchup against Jovic, she had powered through three rounds at Flushing Meadows without yet dropping a set. That streak carried through against Jovic, as Gauff notched a decisive 6-4, 6-1 win. Jovic looked to still be drained through the lopsided first set, and when she made it a match with her aggressive net play in the second? Gauff went to another level, turning up the heat on her serve and groundstrokes, and becoming a backstop with elite running feet, defensively. The lasting image, after the Monday night beatdown, was that of a seasoned bully showing a rising newcomer where their limits still lie. What Gauff once had done to her she now does to others. If the next generation of WTA stars want to go any further, they’ll have to go through her.

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