Last night in New York, 19-year-old Coco Gauff became the first American teenager to reach the U.S. Open finals since Serena Williams more than two decades ago, beating Karolina Muchova 6-4, 7-5 in the semis to earn a spot against Aryna Sabalenka, 2023's Australian Open champ.
That was the normal part of the evening's festivities.
This being the Big Apple, there was also a weird part, to paraphrase Mac Davis in "North Dallas Forty."
Start with an environmental protest that halted the Gauff-Muchova match for almost an hour. Then there was the match itself, which featured an astounding 40-shot rally that Gauff won to force an equally astounding sixth match point.
Six turned out to be the charm, as Gauff finished off Muchova in a match she likely thought was never going to end. And not just because of the six match points.
There was also the 50 minutes it took officials to remove a protester from the stands.
It took them 50 minutes because (and I am not making this up) he'd glued his bare feet to the concrete floor. I don't know how they got him free, but I'm told it did NOT involve taking a chainsaw to his ankles.
"Foot fault!" a security guard sang out as he fired up the old McCullough, provoking loud guffawing from the crowd ...
OK. So, no.
Wouldn't have been proper tennis etiquette, for one thing. Also, tennis crowds do not guffaw, even in New York.
In any event, play resumed, Gauff survived, and now her 19-year-old self is in the finals. And if you combine that with the fact Sabalenka needed three sets to subdue another American, Madison Keys, in the other semifinal ... and yet another American, Ben Shelton, plays in the men's semis today after beating yet ANOTHER American, Frances Tiafoe, in the quarters ...
Well. All that talk we've been hearing about an American resurgence in tennis seems not to be just talk. And that's a good thing for both 'Murica and tennis.
Strange nights in the Apple notwithstanding.
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