Weekend Winners: Is this the year the U.S. tennis revival goes mainstream?

WATCH: Jessica Pegula led off the U.S.'s 4-0 sweep of Italy in the United Cup final with a win over Martina Trevisan.

If you follow tennis closely, you probably think of the last few years as good ones for the American game. Over the past half-decade, the U.S. has produced more Top 100 players—13 on the men’s side, 14 on the women’s as of today—than any other country, and three times as many it did in 2010.

But if your interest in the sport is more causal, you may not have heard the news about this revival. The U.S. men, famously, haven’t had a singles winner at a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick did it 20 years ago; the women have had just one, Sofia Kenin, since 2017. The country hasn’t cashed in at the Davis Cup or the Billie Jean King Cup since 2017, either.

Is 2023 the year when this underground U.S. renaissance finally goes mainstream?

The country’s players certainly broke out of the gates quickly. This weekend, Americans showed off their greatest strength—their numbers—at three locations in Australia and New Zealand. In Sydney, the U.S. men and women teamed up to dominate the inaugural United Cup; Coco Gauff was equally commanding in Auckland; and Sebastian Korda, the fourth-ranked American man, came one point—and one amazing stretch overhead—from beating Novak Djokovic in Adelaide.

Let’s start with United Cup; rankings-wise, that’s where the cream of the U.S. crop was playing. Between them, Jessica Pegula, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys went 22-2 in singles and mixed doubles over the course of the tournament. Tiafoe and Keys were undefeated, but while Fritz and Pegula each suffered a close loss, they each came away with a promising result as well.

In the most eye-popping score of the event, Pegula blitzed No. 1 Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-2 when the U.S. faced Poland. The American did it by beating the Pole to the punch; she took every ball she could on the rise, and sent what seemed like every other ball flying past Swiatek for a stone-cold winner. Even as the finish line, and the biggest win of her career, approached, Pegula showed no signs of extra tension in her arm. The Buffalo native will be the No. 3 seed at the Australian Open, where she’s a two-time quarterfinalist. The U.S. has sent three different women—Kenin, Jennifer Brady, and Danielle Collins—to the last three Australian Open finals. Could Pegula be the fourth?

While not as spectacular as Pegula’s takedown of Swiatek, Fritz’s wins over Matteo Berrettini and (a rusty) Alexander Zverev seemed almost as significant. These are two European players who came up with Fritz, and who, so far, have passed him by as pros. But piece by piece, Fritz has built a game that rivals theirs. In his two-tiebreak, title-clinching win over Berrettini, he was the more potent server, the better defender, the steadier baseliner, and the superior player in the clutch.

“We’ve had a really great like eternity in Sydney,” Pegula said of the U.S.’s 11-day United Cup campaign. “It’s been really fun, though. We have been bonding a lot, I feel like getting to know each other a lot.”

Pegula credited that bonding—including multiple Escape Room games—with their success, but she also recognized that the U.S. roster was straight up world-class to begin with.

“This was just a good team,” she said. “It was a good team from the start.”

What’s more promising, from an American perspective, than a runaway United Cup victory? How about a near-victory over Novak Djokovic in a final?

For the better part of two sets and two hours, Sebastian Korda had the former No. 1 on the ropes. The 22-year-old Floridian built a first-set lead, gagged it away, then survived the tiebreak, 10-8. Korda’s backhand down the line was so crisp and precise that Djokovic himself couldn’t track it down, and he, rather than the Serb, was the calmer and more lethal player in the important moments. With Djokovic serving at 5-6 in the second set, Korda reached championship point. He must have liked his chances as he watched his defensive lob drift toward the sideline and force Djokovic to reach back for a difficult overhead.

That shot has never been a specialty of the Serb’s. But saving match points with stunning winners always has, and he snapped off a perfect inside-out smash to stay alive. While Korda may have been better on the day, it was Djokovic who, after more than three hours, walked off with his first title of 2023.

“It was anybody’s match today,” Djokovic said. “He was quite in control. I wasn’t playing my best at all. But found a way to win.”

Djokovic’s return to Australia couldn’t have gone much better if he had scripted it. He beat Daniil Medvedev and Denis Shapovalov in straight sets, and, 12 months after being unceremoniously tossed out of the country, he enjoyed the re-embrace of the Aussie tennis audience.

“I feel very comfortable with people, normal people, that follow sport, that I encounter on an everyday basis,” Djokovic said of his experience Down Under this year. “I haven’t had any negative experience so far.”

“So every person that I met, whether it’s in the city or in the woods—I actually met a few kangaroos as well, had a chat with them—everyone was very kind, very supportive.”

Will the welcome be as warm in Melbourne? With No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz absent, it may take more than a few hecklers to keep Djokovic from hoisting his 10th Australian Open champion’s trophy three weeks from today.

Coco Gauff knows tennis history—especially her own.

“First title on hard since I was 15,” the American said after beating Rebeka Masarova 6-1, 6-1 in a rain-delayed final in Auckland. “Couldn’t ask for a better start to my season.”

She also couldn’t ask for a more one-sided start. Over five matches this week, Gauff didn’t drop more than four games in any set. Of course, she didn’t play anyone ranked higher than No. 60, either. But remembering how to beat the players you’re supposed to beat is what season-openers are for. At 18, Gauff is too strong, fast, and steady for most of the players ranked below her.

What about the players ranked alongside and above her? Gauff ended 2022 by going 0-3 at the WTA Finals against Top 10 competition, and she suffered four lopsided losses to Swiatek last year. Making headway against the game’s elite—i.e., the players who can match her athleticism—would seem to be the goal for 2023.

For now, she sounds happy to be winning on hard courts—the same ones they’ll use in Melbourne in a few days.

“Honestly, a great week for me despite the rain,” Gauff said in Auckland. “I’m happy to be successful in a surface that I love.”