BY SOUMANOU SALIFOU

The 2023 women’s final of the U.S. Open Tennis tournament ended barely two hours ago with the victory of Coco Gauff, a 19-year-old Black player who emerged out of nowhere five years ago. The stunning victory is welcome news for tennis fans across the United States, especially among Black people.

After losing the first set, 2-6, to her higher-ranked Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabakenka—who is now ranked the world’s number 1 after the tournament—Coco, who moved tonight from world’s number 6 to number 3, took the bull by the horn, winning the second set 6-3 and went on, as is commonly said, to win the whole thing, with a merciless 6-2 third set.

Following the traditional handshake with her opponent, Coco ran to embrace her parents. She said in her post-victory statement: “Today was the first time I’ve ever seen my dad cry. He doesn’t want me to tell y’all that, but he got caught in 4K. He thinks he’s so hard, but you know he’s not…” Indeed, while she uttered those words, Corey Gauff, a former athlete in his own right, was signaling in a way to say “cut it off!”

Blacks’ dominance in popular sports is a controversial subject in the United States, a country with a complicated history of racial relations born out of the trauma of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, and the racism that still exists today. For decades, the secret of that dominance has eluded researchers and the media.

Many people, some with outright racist motives, have attempted to explain it through various theories: the “born better theory” which claims that Blacks are born with better genes; or the “environmental advantage” according to which the high altitude of the Rift Valley region in East Africa, where the vast majority of marathon winners are born and train, explains their superiority. There are many other theories, but probably the most common one is the economic theory, the claim that sports are the only way for most Blacks to make it in the face of the lack of opportunities.

Indeed, the world of professional sports is filled with mind-blowing rags-to-riches stories, basketball star LeBron James being one case in a million. Therefore, the economic theory seems compelling until one looks at the cases of extremely successful Black athletes from well-to-do families who embraced sports for the love of them. Michael Jordan, who came from a middle-class family; the late Kobe Bryant whose father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, played in the NBA from 1975-83 for the 76ers, the Clippers, and the Rockets. Steph Curry, one of the giants of the game of basketball, came from a family where the father, Dell Curry, played in the NBA from 1986 to 2002. Celebrity New Worth estimates his fortune to be $8 million. The same goes with Patrick Mahomes, who is the son of a professional athlete, Pat Mahomes, who pitched for seven teams during his MLB career which spanned from 1992 to 2003.

The proponents of the economic theory are not necessarily prejudiced. A member of my own family, a sophisticated, well-educated and informed young man in his forties—racially proud like the rest of the family yet without an iota of racism in his bones like all of us—adheres to the economic theory which, like the other theories, has not been proved so far by anyone.

After Coco’s victory tonight, sports analysts are expecting more of the same from here in the near future. For its part, the Black family is celebrating the 19-year phenom who took tonight the first step on the trail blazed by Serena Williams, the best tennis player of all time, with the most wins until the Serbian tennis star, Novak Djokovic, reached the same number of victories just last year.

Hurray, Coco! We are proud of you. Thanks, daughter, for honoring us like so many athletes in the Black family have done before you.