The US Open has been ripe with drama including postmatch net confrontations and meltdowns; the latest example is Coco Gauff who channeled her emotions for a positive result.
Too often we focus and dissect the negative stories with Jelena Ostapenko and Daniil Medvedev at the US Open and earlier in the summer, Danielle Collins in Cincinnati, Naomi Osaka at the Canadian Open, and Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open and to a lesser degree at Wimbledon.
The countless recent examples show us that athletes are human, and like the rest of us, they do not speak well or act well 100% of the time. That does not give them a free pass, but it should give them some grace on slip ups.
Thankfully, we can turn the page from Jelena Ostapenko’s recent incident, which in an ironic twist, Osaka and Sabalenka were asked to opine about, to Coco Gauff.
Coco Gauff Let Us In
It was difficult to watch the raw emotion emanating from Coco Gauff during her second round match with Donna Vekic on Thursday night. She made a big decision to change coaches days before the US Open which means that she and biomedical trainer, Gavin McMillan, have not had much time to tweak her problemmatic serve.
.@CocoGauff was emotional after winning her second round match at the US Open 🥹 pic.twitter.com/py1L7eXKm0
— ESPN (@espn) August 29, 2025
At times the serve looks good, but it is still letting her down, and she was on the verge of tears at times on Thursday night. More unsettling was watching her visibly shaking from the stress of it.
When asked about it after the match, she handled the question with grace and gave us the answer that we need to apply to everyone competing at this level. They are human beings who struggle. Their struggles are visible to the world in big moments, but they have to fight their doubts and insecurities and keep competing, much like the rest of us do each day.
Watch Coco Gauff take on Magdalena French in the US Open third round on Saturday, August 30 on ESPN.
