Coco Gauff lands Mortal Kombat blow on Tennis Twitter, silences doubters with US Open win

NEW YORK—It may be time to private your X accounts, boys and girls: tennis players have officially had it with Tennis Twitter.

Coco Gauff made oblique references to “those who thought they were putting water on \[her\] fire” during her 2023 US Open trophy ceremony, but went all in during her post-match press conference and landed a “Finish them!” blow on the platform after capturing her first Grand Slam title.

“I just felt like people were, like, ‘Oh, she's hit her peak and she's done. It was all hype,’” she said of the reaction to her first-round Wimbledon exit.

“I see the comments,” she added with a laugh. “People don't think I see it but I see it. I'm very aware of tennis Twitter. I know y'all's usernames, so I know who's talking trash and I can't wait to look on Twitter right now!”

The 19-year-old indeed used their doubt to fuel her fire in Flushing Meadows, admitting to reading critical messages before appearing on court to face rising world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in her second major final on Saturday.

“Literally up until, like, 10 minutes before the match, I was just reading comments of people saying I wasn't going to win today.”

Gauff became the latest in a long line of players to drag so-called “tennis experts” during the Open, starting with an impassioned rant from former world No. 2 Casper Ruud.

“It's just interesting to see how people just exaggerate all the time on social media about anything,” said Ruud, calling Twitter (now called X) a “wicked place.” “You go from being the best player in the world to the worst player in the history from one week to another, and it shouldn't be taken serious[ly].”

Belinda Bencic and Jessica Pegula joined the fray later in the tournament, with the latter calling out one account by name for saying she cried leaving her match against Madison Keys. Even Gauff foreshadowed her displeasure with the tennis cognoscenti after current world No. 1 Iga Swiatek exited before their anticipated quarterfinal clash.

“That's why you can never pay attention to what journalists say sometimes—no offense to you guys!—but they were making the matchup already,” she said on Wednesday.

After her comeback win over Sabalenka, Gauff did look back on the time those doubters discouraged her, and made a special dedication in press.

“I wish I could give this trophy to my past self so she can be, like, all those tears are for this moment.”