Coco Gauff wins Roland Garros 2025: New symbol of American tennis

With Coco Gauff's victory at Roland Garros 2025, two consecutive Grand Slam women's singles championships have belonged to American girls.

Coco Gauff shines at Roland Garros 2025 - Photo: Reuters

A few months ago, when Madison Keys won the Australian Open before turning 30, many believed it was just a rare flash of brilliance for the American tennis player.

Indeed, Keys has not won a major since that surprise title. The Florida native is considered a typical case of the popular model of American tennis.

Has good height (Keys is 1m79 tall), long arm and leg span, strong serve, very strong in the first set... but will gradually weaken when the match enters the tense moment, and also does not have "tricks" to defeat strong opponents.

That is why Keys has reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam tournaments before 2024 6 times, but still could not reach the championship. Even though in the tennis world in the past 7-8 years, there have been no more overwhelming names like Serena Williams, Justin Henin, Kim Clijster, Maria Sharapova.

Keys' Australian Open win was a rare, well-timed flash of brilliance, but not enough to make her the hope of American tennis.

But Coco Gauff is different. The 21-year-old girl goes beyond the usual "college sports " framework of America. In recent years, the American sports world has begun to debate the influence of the powerful college sports model that they own.

There are many positive aspects of the school sports movement, but with professional sports like tennis, school sports also lead to many barriers that cause athletes to "slow down their progress".

In men’s singles, American players are far inferior to their compatriots in women’s singles. From Andy Roddick to John Isner, Sam Querrey, Taylor Fritz, all are like molds with aggressive playing style, extremely powerful serves but no other special features. America is still the world’s largest tennis nation with a large number of athletes in the world’s top 100. But when reaching the top 10, the number of American players has dropped sharply.

Coco Gauff won the French Open at the age of 21 - Photo: Reuters

Darren Cahill, Jannik Sinner's coach, once pointed out the problem with American tennis when he was a commentator for ESPN. According to Cahill, American players are boxed into school sports until they graduate, when they are 22 or 23 years old.

Meanwhile, tennis players from Spain, Russia, and Italy have broken through to the professional model from around the age of 20. The NCAA - the American college sports system - has many values ​​with the Olympic model (amateur sports), but hinders star athletes in the professional sports model.

Coco Gauff is a rare name that breaks away from that model. The 21-year-old girl has parents who were quite famous NCAA athletes in previous decades. Perhaps that is why Mr. and Mrs. Gauff chose a separate path early when their daughter showed her talent for tennis.

From the age of 8, Coco washomeschooled by her parents to spend more time on sports. Corey coached her, while Candi took care of her academic studies. At the age of 10, Coco Gauff was officially sent to a tennis academy.

From around the age of 15, Coco Gauff rose to world-class status, becoming the brightest prodigy of women's singles tennis. And her rise has lived up to expectations. Before winning Roland Garros at 21, Gauff won the US Open at 19. In the current generation of tennis players, only Iga Swiatek has gone faster.

Just by watching one match, fans can easily see how different Coco Gauff is from other American tennis players. It seems that American tennis has finally found a new icon.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/coco-gauff-vo-dich-roland-garros-2025-bieu-tuong-moi-cua-quan-vot-america-20250609081301646.htm