Coco Gauff won the 2023 US Open at age 19, and for former US Open champion Angelique Kerber, it came as a bit of a surprise.
Gauff has obviously been a very talented player for a few years now, so nothing she really does is a huge surprise to anybody. It's what most people expect out of her. The only real mystery was when and not if it was going to happen.
For Gauff, things finally clicked at this year's US Open. She's been playing amazing tennis in the lead-up to the event, slowly growing her confidence, which skyrocketed in New York during that run.
She made it to the final and then turned around a tricky situation against world number one to be, Aryna Sabalenka. It's a very impressive feat and it started the young American's ascend on the WTA Tour.
Former US Open champion Angelique Kerber certainly found it impressive and a little bit surprising as well, revealing her thoughts during a recent interview with Porsche.
Of course, I’ve always kept up to date. Alongside players at the very top like Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff has particularly impressed me. She’s played great tournaments time and time again for a while now, but the fact she’s now already won the US Open at the age of only 19 is however a little bit of a surprise.
Pretty soon, Kerber will return to being an active player, and then she'll be able to see this new version of Gauff up close. There has been plenty of maturing since the last time Kerber played on Tour, and that's hard to convey over a screen.
When she sees Gauff up close, she will probably have a better idea of why the US Open went the way it went.