Stat of the Year, No. 4: Coco Gauff becomes first American teenager to win US Open this century

Yesterday we kicked off our countdown of the Top 5 Stats of the Year with Barbora Krejcikova’s historic feat in Dubai, where she became the first woman in WTA rankings history to defeat No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 at the same event in three consecutive days.

Today, we head halfway across the world to New York City, where an American teenager added her name to a very exclusive list.

After winning her first WTA 500 title in Washington D.C. and her first WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati, Coco Gauff went into the US Open this year as one of the big favorites—and she came through, going all the way to the first Grand Slam title of her career, battling back from a set down to defeat Aryna Sabalenka in the final, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

And with that, the 19-year-old Gauff became the first American teenager, male or female, to win the US Open this century.

She was just the fourth American teenager to win it in the Open Era.

AMERICAN TEENAGERS TO WIN US OPEN IN OPEN ERA (since 1968):

• Tracy Austin [1979, 1981]
• Pete Sampras [1990]
• Serena Williams [1999]
• Coco Gauff [2023]

Austin was the youngest of the group to win the US Open, doing it at age 16 in 1979. Then Serena at 17 in 1999, Austin again at 18 in 1981, Sampras at 19 in 1990 and now Gauff at 19 in 2023.

Combined with her five wins en route to the Cincinnati title, Gauff’s seven wins in Flushing Meadows extended her winning streak to 12 matches in a row—she would eventually run it up to 16 in a row, the longest on the women’s tour this year, before Iga Swiatek finally snapped it in the semifinals of the WTA 1000 event in Beijing.

At No. 3, she’s currently the only teenager in the WTA Top 40.

Check back tomorrow for our No. 3 Stat of the Year…