What perfect timing.
That thought flashed through my mind as I sat courtside at Arthur Ashe Stadium last week and watched Coco Gauff hit the backhand passing shot that won her the US Open and her first Grand Slam title.
My thoughts revolved around both the synchronized manner in which Gauff hit the final ball and how the moment was planned for this column.
Gauff – now a sensation at 19, just as Venus and Serena Williams were at the same age – was getting closer to her destiny. With a major championship in hand, she is poised to be a leader on the women’s tennis tour and one of the guardians of the new era of female empowerment in the sport.
Her beginning was a perfect ending for me. The Open was the last event I will cover as a Sports of The Times columnist. I’m moving to our National Desk, where I will write features on America’s wonders, complexities, problems and promises.
How perfect that the US Open helped raise the curtain on a women’s sport being the highlight of the tournament: Gauff’s three-set victory over Aryna Sabalenka overshadowed a disappointing men’s final in which Novak Djokovic won his 24th major with a straight-set win. Consecutive titles won over Daniil Medvedev. For me, women were the be-all and end-all, and not just at the US Open.
I took over this column in late summer 2020. The worst days of the pandemic may now seem like a hazy memory, stuck in the background of our collective consciousness, as painful moments often are. Much of the sports world was closed, scrambling to find ways to return to competition amid the loss of so many lives. Who would have thought when the rampant virus would be tamed?
At the same time, the pervasive legacy of racism shocked the nation following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — both at the hands of police brutality — and the brutal murder of jogger Ahmaud Arbery by white supremacists.
Remember the athletes – famous professionals and little-known amateurs in the United States and around the world – and how they spoke up and led.
And remember, Donald Trump was president at the time and he directed harsh remarks at them, particularly toward Black athletes who raised their voices or protested by having the audacity to kneel and exercise their right to peacefully protest during the playing of the national anthem.
I wrote about all of that and more, and I tried to do so in a way that showed I wasn’t interested in the kind of bluster that permeates much sports journalism. My goal was to write thoughtfully about how sports and athletes intersect with the social issues that move and trouble our culture. I wanted to be a strong voice in this area and add a good dash of storytelling and the odd piece spiced with a bit of cheeky fun to the mix. More than anything, I have tried to live out the most tried-and-tested journalistic creeds: to comfort the afflicted and torment the comfortable—or, as I put it, to fight for the underdogs and the outliers, the invisible and the overlooked.
Which brings me back to a theme I’ve often thought about here, one epitomized by Gauff hitting that backhand pass shot and claiming a Grand Slam title and a $3 million winner’s check: the rise of the Women in sport.
Think of everything we have experienced in this area over the last three years.
Consider the WNBA, the league’s leading role in the 2020 protests, and its continued strength as a coalition of women unafraid to challenge the status quo.
Consider the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s victorious fight for equal pay, or how soccer players around the world and in the NWSL fought back against harassing and abusive coaches.
Did you watch the University of Nebraska volleyball game with 92,000 fans in the stands? Or all the record-breaking, packed stadiums at the Women’s World Cup, with 75,000 spectators at the recent final in Australia?
Yes, it’s a new era.
Consider March Madness 2023. This was a year in which the men’s event was overshadowed by the women’s team – with its surprises, excitement and quality. With the charismatic Angel Reese leading LSU to the national title ahead of Iowa. Featuring the bold and black Reese, who sparked a conversation about race by mocking her white opponent, Caitlin Clark, the Sniper of the Year.
Yes, on the field, in athletics, or wherever they compete, women can be just as challenging, stubborn, competitive, and controversial as men. We have to celebrate this.
Where will this end? With a few exceptions, including tennis, it’s hard to imagine women’s sports getting the kind of attention they deserve any time soon.
Who gets the most money, the most attention and the most hosannas in youth sports? Overall guys.
Who runs most of the teams and controls most of the media that broadcasts and writes about the games? By and large men.
Who runs the companies that provide the sponsorship money? Yes, mostly men.
Change is coming. But the change will take longer. Maybe a few more generations.
The cards remain stacked in favor of the men, but the women continue their fight. When it comes to the games we play and enjoy watching, this is the biggest story in sports right now.
How perfect that this year’s US Open would once again provide the framework for this story. Flushing Meadows was a two-week gala celebration of the 50th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s successful bid for equal prize money at the event – a milestone in the sport that still stands out for its audacity.
And how fitting that on this golden anniversary – Serena Williams now retired and Billie Jean at the center of the tributes throughout the tournament – Gauff would win her first Grand Slam tournament, and do so with the attitude that she as Heiress to the throne.
Thank you, Coco and Serena. Thank you, Billie Jean, and all the other athletes who bucked the status quo, emerged victorious, and are still in the fight.
And thank you for sticking with me as I tried to advocate for the outsiders and make sense of it all.
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