Take a look at the closing days of this year’s U.S. Open.
Of the eight players who reached the men’s and women’s singles semifinals, three are Black — Coco Gauff, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe. All three are Americans.
In the women’s doubles final, two of the four players are Black Americans: Taylor Townsend and Robin Montgomery.
For women’s tennis, seeing Black players on the biggest stage isn’t new. Althea Gibson opened the door. Venus and Serena Williams blew it wide open. Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and now Gauff have kept walking through it.
The real surprise is what is happening with the men.
Friday night, Shelton and Tiafoe will become the first two Black American men to face each other in a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open Era. Because they’re playing each other, one is guaranteed to reach the U.S. Open final — the first Black American man to do so since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
That’s 54 years.
The Men Have Arrived
Tiafoe, 28, is in his third U.S. Open semifinal. Shelton, 23, first reached the semifinals here at age 20 and returned this year after upsetting defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set thriller.
But the rise of Black men is bigger than those two Americans.
Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime is currently the highest-ranked Black man in the world at No. 4. Shelton is No. 9, France’s Arthur Fils No. 11 and Tiafoe No. 12 — four Black men among the world’s top 12.
Just a few weeks ago, The Community Voice spotlighted another history-making matchup when Tiafoe faced Fils in the Cincinnati Open final.
Cincinnati is a Masters 1000 tournament, the highest level below the four Grand Slams. Their matchup was the first Masters 1000 final ever between two Black players. Fils won, capturing the biggest title of his young career.
An all-Black Masters final in August, followed less than three weeks later by an all-Black U.S. Open semifinal, starts to look like more than a coincidence.
Black Women Never Left
While the men are the new part of the story, Black women remain firmly planted near the top.
Start with Coco Gauff. At just 22, she owns two Grand Slam singles championships — the 2023 U.S. Open and 2025 French Open — and is back in the U.S. Open semifinals this year.
She is also a commercial powerhouse. Forbes ranked Gauff the world’s highest-paid female athlete in both 2024 and 2025, estimating her 2025 earnings at $33 million. Venus and Serena Williams both held that title at different times as well.
Black women are also guaranteed a major role in the women’s doubles championship.
Townsend and Czech partner Katerina Siniakova, the No. 1 seeds, will face Americans Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger.
Townsend and Siniakova have already won Wimbledon, the Australian Open and this year’s French Open together. A U.S. Open victory would give Townsend a career Grand Slam – a win in all four slams – in women’s doubles.
Montgomery and Krueger won the 2021 U.S. Open girls’ doubles championship together, while Montgomery also won the girls’ singles title that year. Five years later, they’re back together playing for the women’s professional championship.
Townsend is also proving she isn’t only a doubles specialist. For the second year in a row, she reached the Round of 16 in singles at the U.S. Open.
The Bench Is Getting Deeper
The depth goes well beyond the players still alive in the U.S. Open. Madison Keys, 31, won her first Grand Slam at the 2025 Australian Open, eight years after facing Sloane Stephens in an all-Black American U.S. Open final.
Italy’s 5-foot-4 Jasmine Paolini, whose mother is of Ghanaian and Polish descent, has climbed as high as No. 4. American Hailey Baptiste beat then-world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Madrid this season, while Alycia Parks remains one of the biggest servers in women’s tennis.
Then there is Victoria Mboko. The Canadian began 2025 outside the sport’s elite, won the Canadian Open at 18 and climbed as high as No. 9 this year before a knee injury sidelined her.
The list is getting long.
They’re Giving Fans More Than Tennis
Winning gets attention. Personality keeps fans watching.
Tiafoe feeds off the crowd. Shelton brings emotion and swagger. Gauff lets people see the joy and frustration. Townsend talks, laughs and plays with attitude.
And increasingly, fans are waiting to see what they’ll wear.
Venus and especially Serena Williams helped push tennis fashion far beyond the traditional tennis dress. Serena made news in catsuits, tutus, crystals and outfits created specifically for the moment.
Even this year, when Serena returned to the U.S. Open doubles court with Venus, the entrance became part of the show. She warmed up in a cropped black jacket with “Serena” across the back and the years of her U.S. Open championships running down the sleeves before the sisters revealed coordinated white outfits.
Naomi Osaka has taken the tennis entrance even further. One of her looks this year paired a distressed hoodie and cascading white tulle skirt with an Allen Iverson-inspired tennis outfit underneath.
Townsend created one of the tournament’s biggest fashion conversations after years without a major apparel sponsor. She wore a different custom outfit for each singles round, including the dramatic black ensemble she wore against Sabalenka.
It’s no longer just the tennis dress. The entrance, coverup, shoes, bags and accessories are part of the show — and Black women have been at the forefront of that transformation.
The men are bringing their own style and charisma, too.
And Yes, They’re Making Real Money
Success at this level pays.
At this year’s U.S. Open, singles players earned $140,000 simply for making the main draw. The men’s and women’s singles champions will each take home a record $5.5 million. Masters 1000 champions can earn seven figures, too.
For Black children watching, that matters. They can see players who look like them winning big matches, earning millions, landing endorsements and becoming cultural stars.
For years, Black tennis was often represented by one exceptional player at a time.
Now there are enough of them to meet each other for some of the biggest trophies in the sport.
And Friday night, either Ben Shelton or Frances Tiafoe will leave Arthur Ashe Stadium headed to the U.S. Open men’s final.
For a Black American man, that hasn’t happened since Arthur Ashe.
Fifty-four years ago.
