On September 9, at the beginning of the women’s final of the U.S. Open, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys walked onto the court carrying flowers. The rest isn’t worth overanalyzing: Stephens won the match in a rout as Keys struggled with her nerves and her mobility. It’s that they were both there that counts—two young Americans in a U.S. Open final for the first time since Venus and Serena Williams met in 2002.
After years of concern that the next generation of American women players was faltering at the game’s highest level, everything went right at Flushing Meadows. American women—Stephens, Keys, Co Co Vandeweghe, and Venus Williams—took every spot in the tournament’s semifinals. This is a level of U.S. dominance not seen since the ’85 Wimbledon. No other country is close to doing this in women’s tennis. In no other country is so much talent to be found among so many players.
“I really feel like the dominoes are going to fall,” says Martin Blackman, the general manager for player development of the U.S. Tennis Association. “Kind of like the way it was when Michael Chang won the French Open.”
Blackman was referring to 1989, when Chang won the French Open at the age of 17. It had been five years since an American man had won a major title, and the teenager’s victory in Paris opened a dominant stretch, with multiple major titles won by Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, and, most of all, Pete Sampras, whose 14 Grand Slams set a record that has since been eclipsed by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Venus and Serena Williams, ages 37 and 35, have been just as commanding in women’s tennis for the last 15 years. Together, they have won 30 Grand Slam singles titles. Their flair and lasting success made it easy for fans to overlook the struggles of the younger Americans as other countries—especially Russia, Belgium, and Serbia—produced No. 1 players and Grand Slam winners. Before Stephens beat Keys, no American woman not named Williams had won a major since Jennifer Capriati in 2002.
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Women’s tennis is as competitive as ever these days, with only Serena a genuine favorite against any other player—and no one can know if this will remain the case when she returns to the tour after having her first child this summer. The other top players from all over the world can all beat one another on any given day. To wit: Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Kvitova, and Angelique Kerber have, between them, won each of the four Slams. Each has the potential to win any major tournament she enters or lose in the first round—as Kerber did at the U.S. Open this year. The difference between being a champ or an afterthought is minuscule on the women’s tour right now.
But the American women are rising, and more are coming. There’s Ci Ci Bellis, 18 years old and already ranked in the top 50. This year’s U.S. Open girls’ final had two Americans—Amanda Anisimova and Cori Gauff. Anisimova, 16, defeated Gauff, who is all of 13 years old.
Among the professionals, Keys, 22, has the most talent of the new bunch. She is tall—5-foot-10—and impressively quick for her size. Her serve is exceptional and she hits her ground strokes so hard that, at times, her opponents look lost. Keys’s biggest problem: She can struggle with her emotions. In the final, she lost all but three games. But she’ll get over this match. Her coach, three-time major champion Lindsay Davenport, is surely already pushing Keys to learn from her failure. Like the big-hitting Davenport once did, Keys will figure out how to prevent an opponent from doing what she wants on the court.
And when she does, look out. Keys, seeded 15th at the Open, excelled in early rounds, especially her fourth-round, three-set victory over the number 4 seed, Elina Svitolina. It was one of those classic late-night matches, when many fans have already gone home but the ones who stay are excited and loud. Keys trailed 4-2 in the third set, two games from defeat when she took in the noise from the fans and stepped things up. “They are an amazing crowd because no matter what, they’re still there and they’re still cheering for you,” she said. “No matter what the score was, they were definitely behind me.”
If Keys is the young, on-the-rise player, Vandeweghe can be seen as a bit of a late bloomer. She’s 25 and even taller than Keys—6-foot-1. Her game is rugged and her serve has a lot of kick, which means the ball bounces high and makes returns difficult. After years of steady if unspectacular play, Vandeweghe suddenly is a true Grand Slam contender. Earlier this year, she reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, followed by a quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon. Her serve and heavy forehand carried her through the first five rounds of the U.S. Open and brought her to a semifinal against Keys.
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The Keys-Vandeweghe match was another potential classic that failed to deliver. Keys blew her opponent off the court: 6-1, 6-2. Vandeweghe admitted she just couldn’t keep up: “Madison played an unbelievable match,” she said. “I didn’t really have much to do with anything out there.” This happens often with players from the same country, especially when they’re close off the court, as all the young Americans are. Players bond in the rigors of the professional tour, and when they play each other, there is an added layer of stress. Start winning and you’ll likely create further pressure, and then win by a lot. This often happened when the Williams sisters played each other.
Stephens, 24, was not just the biggest star of the tournament, but also its biggest surprise. She missed almost a year after foot surgery and didn’t start playing tennis again until May. She lost in the first round at Wimbledon and had equal trouble as the hard-court season got going—losing to Simona Halep in the first round at the Citi Open in August. But it all clicked in New York. As Stephens rose through the women’s game, she often seemed to lack a love of tennis, as if it were a chore to play, not a passion. Her injury, in the end, may have been a blessing; the time away seems to have made her appreciate the game and her chance to play it at the highest levels.
Her first big challenge in New York came in the second round, against the fast and relentless 11th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova. Stephens, the queen of speed and steady strokes, prevailed in three sets. Her best match was against Venus Williams in the semifinals. It was a classic: When Williams was on, she destroyed, but when she wasn’t, Stephens took control. Stephens won the first set 6-1, lost the second 0-6. The tense third set was wonderful. Trailing five games to four, Stephens was two points from defeat when she belted a down-the-line backhand winner. Against any opponent, that would be a feat. Against someone whose arms are as long and quick as Williams’s, it was a miracle. Stephens wouldn’t lose another game. Her attitude, she said, was simple. “I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, I’m totally going to win the U.S. Open,’ ” she said. “I wasn’t thinking any of that. I was just going out and playing and competing. That’s all I was thinking about.”
Stephens led from the beginning in the final. The match showed how difficult it can be for American players who are friends to compete in a stylish way. Keys was tight and nervous and perhaps suffering from an injury—her right thigh had been wrapped before play. Stephens’s game is all about steadiness and balance, and she won easily. When the match ended, the two young women hugged and then sat together. The match didn’t entertain, but after seeing their emotions at the end, it was impossible not to love them. It’s a joy to watch players mature and achieve. It is why the decade of Chang, Courier, Agassi, and Sampras was so memorable for American fans. Right now, with Stephens, Keys, and Vandeweghe, it seems like we have a lot to look forward to.
Tom Perrotta writes about sports for the Wall Street Journal, FiveThirtyEight, and other publications.
