The U.S. Open–taking place at home in New York–garners crowds of fans, celebrity appearances, and the biggest tennis stars in the world. This year, after two weeks, players Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic went home with the Grand Slam title under their belts.
Winning the U.S. Open was the first Grand Slam title for Gauff. At the age of only 19, she has long shown potential to be a great star. At 15, she became the youngest person to qualify for Wimbledon. She’s also the first American teenager to win the tournament since 1999, when Serena Williams won. Following her triumphant final match, Gauff has received praise and congratulations from many, including Barack Obama, former tennis player Roger Federer, Zendaya, and more.
The 2023 men’s U.S. Open was championed by Novak Djokovic following a long and exciting match against Daniil Medvedev. This is Djokovic’s third Grand Slam title of 2023 and a historic 24th in his career. He has now surpassed Serena Williams’s record and is the only tennis player in the Open Era to hold 24 wins.
Beyond the men’s and women’s titles, the US Open features doubles, juniors, and wheelchair tournaments. As an unseeded wildcard, Katherine Hui, a current freshman at Stanford University, came out on top in the Junior Girls title. Meanwhile, Diede De Groot won her 12th straight Grand Slam title for the Wheelchair Singles match. This win marks the Dutch player’s sixth straight year of winning the U.S. Open.
This year’s U.S. Open celebrated 50 years of equal prize money being awarded to both the men and women champions. Billie Jean King is often attributed to implementing the milestone. After winning the U.S. Open in 1972, King noticed the $15,000 difference between her earnings and her male counterpart’s. She decided to boycott the whole tournament unless equal prize money became available. When King beat Bobby Riggs, former number one male player, during the historic “Battle of the Sexes” in ‘73, it acted as a tipping point on the path to equal winnings. By the time the US Open rolled around again, people were fed up with the boycotting, high tensions, and gender discrimination. To appease all, and as an excellent marketing strategy, Ban deodorant volunteered to bridge the pay gap for the tournament. In that first year of equality, each champion player was awarded $25,000. Fifty years later, both Gauff and Djokovic went home with $3 million apiece.
Each year, the U.S. Open comes to spotlight a beloved sport that isn’t often the center of American attention. This August saw its highest turnout of fans yet, and hopefully, the numbers will continue to grow in the future. With the high energy playing, close matches, and pure, raw talent, the Open will always be a wonderful thing to have happening next door.
