"I was one of the dummies who questioned whether there'd be a vacuum post Federer, Nadal & Serena Williams" - Andy Roddick on Coco Gauff's US Open win

Andy Roddick is of the opinion that Coco Gauff's US Open triumph has come at just the right time to fill the vacuum in tennis, especially in the United States.

The American admitted that he was one of the "dummies" who wondered if tennis was going to take a dip in popularity following the end of the careers of Roger Federer and Serena Williams, with Rafael Nadal on the way out soon as well. However, Gauff's ascendance at Flushing Meadows earlier this month has convinced Roddick that the teenager could carry the sport for years to come.

Gauff beat World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets to win her maiden Grand Slam in New York last week, becoming only the third teenager in US Open history to win the women's title. Before her, only Tracy Austin and Serena Williams had achieved the feat.

In a blog he wrote for Betway recently, Roddick proclaimed that Gauff's title win at the US Open was "poetic," with it coming the very next year after Serena Williams bid farewell to the sport at the same tournament.

"I was one of the dummies who questioned whether there would be a vacuum in tennis post Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) and Serena (Williams), so the timing of Coco Gauff’s win couldn’t have been better, especially here in the US," Andy Roddick said.

"Venus and Serena were Coco’s idols, so to announce herself on the Grand Slam stage in the first year of the US Open after Serena’s retirement – a tournament where we saw Serena carry the public interest for a couple of decades – is pretty poetic," he added.

The former World No. 1 also hailed Coco Gauff's impressive problem-solving abilities throughout the tournament, marveling at how she turned her "average" days into three-set wins.

"She didn’t play her best every single match, including the final; so the most impressive thing to me was the adjustment in strategy and turning her average days into three-set wins," Andy Roddick said.

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"It seemed to be a little too much for Sabalenka, who deserves credit for being the new No.1 in the world" - Andy Roddick on Coco Gauff's US Open 2023 final win

Coco Gauff, US Open Tennis

Touching on the final against Aryna Sabalenka, Andy Roddick pointed out how Coco Gauff quickly realised that it was not possible to keep up with the Belarusian in terms of aggression and switched to defense instead.

"She tried to go more toe-to-toe with Aryna Sabalenka in the first set and realised that (it) wasn’t going to work, so she needed to make her hit as many shots as possible and rely on her legs."

"She went with the mentality of saying, ‘I’m going to be a volume shooter, you’re going to have to beat me four or five times in a rally, and I’m going to bring 25,000 of my closest friends into this match, too,’" Andy Roddick said.

The former US Open winner extended his sympathy to Sabalenka, adding that while she did not get the title she wanted, the World No. 1 ranking she gained at Flushing Meadows was a "hell of a consolation prize."

"It seemed to be a little too much for Sabalenka, who deserves credit for being the new No.1 in the world. It’s not the US Open title that she wanted, but it’s a hell of a consolation prize," Andy Roddick said.