Whats next for American women's tennis after Serena and Venus? - Issue #2

Highlighting the next wave of American tennis.

Written by Dove Sallow

With the legendary Serena Williams “evolving” away from tennis, the US Open has highlighted some promising American women who are hungry to reach the top of the sport. While none of them are necessarily new faces, let’s take a look at the three American women who made this year’s Round of 16.

Danielle Collins

The 28 year-old played collegiate tennis at the University of Virginia, which explains her greatest asset - her ability to compete. Collins is known for her competitiveness and ferociousness on court. I will never forget the final she played at the Australian Open this year. Not only was she competing against the most dominant world #1 we’ve seen in a while, Ash Barty, she was also fighting the crowd. The crowd was completely one sided for their Aussie favorite. They hardly cheered Danielle’s winners, and they applauded her double faults as well as yelled her direction while she was serving. It’s the new age of tennis and one sided/rowdy crowds are becoming a bigger part of our sport, but many players crumble in these kinds of environments. Collins is the opposite; she fights harder and challenges anyone and everyone who challenges her. She did not back down to a single person in that crowd in Australia. Even though she lost the match, it’s clearly only made her tougher. Her fighting spirit is her greatest weapon in my opinion, but her backhand is arguably the best on tour and her return of serve is lethal. During her first week in New York, she’s taken out 4-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka, Cristina Bucsa, and Alize Cornet in straight sets. A huge part of her success is because of how aggressive she’s been when returning serve. She attacks second serves as well as I’ve ever seen, and this is why she was able to take out Osaka (who hits the ball harder than her). She gets the first crack at dictating the rally because of the hyper-aggression she’s using when returning. This is the same tactic she used to reach her first grand slam final in Australia and it suits her game perfectly. She’s been playing on Arthur Ashe at night for most of her matches, and I believe this was a wise decision by the tournament director. Danielle really knows how to hype up a crowd and she clearly thrives in a night match environment.

Coco Gauff

Of all the active American tennis players on tour, Coco is definitely the one you’ve heard of. Groomed for success at a young age, you can understand why this teenage prodigy is constantly compared to the Williams sisters. In regards to her game style, I don’t see many similarities to Serena or Venus. For the last few years, it seemed like her coaches and team were dead set on having Coco play Williams sister style tennis. (big flat groundstrokes, constant aggression, etc.) Her forehand grip is extremely western, so trying to hit flat constantly caused a lot of errors on that forehand wing for the last few years. This year, her forehand has improved drastically and she’s started to play to her strengths. She’s started to hit with a lot more spin on her forehand, while keeping the backhand flat and aggressive. She has more margin now on her shots and is happy to play defensive tennis at times. Coco is one of the fastest movers on tour and is arguably most dangerous when she’s on the run. Her serve is extremely powerful, but I believe her greatest strength is her footspeed. Whenever she’s been down in the score line this week, she’s been able to run down every single ball and force errors from her opponents. She did it against Shuai Zhang in her 4th round match where she was down 3-5 in the second set and saved multiple set points. She also defeated Leolia Jeanjean, Elena Gabriela Ruse, and fellow American Madison Keys all in straight sets. Gauff has now realized she does not need to be playing flat, aggressive tennis constantly to win grand slams and have a legacy of her own. She has a massive weapon in her footspeed that makes her the most dangerous 18 year old in the world. She will face former world #4 Caroline Garcia in the quarterfinals.

Jessica Pegula

The least talked about player of the three is quietly making her way through the draw like she has been doing in pretty much every tournament she’s played for the last two years. She has been so steady and consistent with her results that it makes you wonder why she seems to fly under the radar. Her ranking sits at number 8 in the world and she has a win/loss record of 36/16. She’s now reached the quarterfinals of every grand slam this year besides Wimbledon. Her career statistics are jaw-dropping and certainly the most consistently impressive we’ve seen among American women in years. The only thing I can pinpoint to why this goes unnoticed is her game style. She does not possess a huge serve or have one of the biggest weapons on tour, but she plays high percentage aggressive tennis. Jessica hits a very flat ball and has great timing. She’s a quick mover around the court and likes to redirect pace. Her backhand is her strongest shot and she definitely plays her best tennis on hard courts. Her road to the quarters has been pretty straightforward, only dropping one set along the way. She’s defeated Viktorija Golubic, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, qualifier Yue Yuan, and two time grand slam champion Petra Kvitova. These fast hard courts definitely suit her style of play. I also have to say, flying under the radar might not be such a bad thing. She has been quietly underestimated all year and has been quietly proving people wrong. She reminds me a bit of Lindsay Davenport, who also seemed to fly under the radar during her era because she played at the same time as Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters. Lindsay still managed to walk away with 3 grand slams and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jessica does the same. She will face current world #1 Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals.

A New Era

For every record Serena Williams broke, there was a child watching and dreaming of being as powerful, as quick, and as dominant as her one day. The dominance of Serena has come to an end, but both her and her sister Venus carried the flag for American tennis proudly for almost 3 decades. Now, American tennis looks for its next chapter and hopes that one of these players can follow in their footsteps. If what we are now witnessing is in fact the Serena and Venus effect - the future of American women’s tennis is full of hope.