Coco Gauff said that growing up, she never expected to witness a Grand Slam semi-final being played between two black American men.

Gauff is one of three black Americans to reach the last four of this year’s US Open. The others to do so are Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, who played against each other in what will be the first Grand Slam semi-final between two black American male players in the Open Era. Both Shelton and Tiafoe secured their place by coming through marathon five-set matches against Carlos Alcaraz and Alex Michelsen.

“I think it’s so incredible. Honestly, especially on the men’s side, I never thought I would be able to have the chance to see an all-Black semifinal between the guys in my lifetime,” Gauff said after beating Mirra Andreeva.

“Growing up, just looking at who was playing, I just never thought that that would be able to happen. And to have me in the semis, I think it’s really cool.”

The women’s game has seen various successes by black players due to the dominance of the Williams sisters, as well as others. However, on the men’s Tour, only two black players have won a Grand Slam singles title since 1968. The first was Arthur Ashe, who clinched the US Open trophy in 1968 before going on to win the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. Then in 1983 Yannick Noah won the French Open.

“I have so much respect for both Ben and Frances,” Gauff continued.

“I’m just rooting for a good match, and hopefully whoever wins can bring it home.”

Whilst she is cheering for the duo, Gauff doesn’t plan to reach out to them until the tournament is over. Her reason for doing so is out of fear it could be bad luck.

“I don’t really like to do it in the middle of the tournaments because I feel like it’s a bad luck omen, so I usually don’t like to text anyone while they’re playing the tournament,” she explained.

“I don’t want to screw up momentum.

“Madison [Keys] had the same thing with Frances and the one time he didn’t text her, she won the Australian Open, so I was like, let me not ruin it for them.”

The men’s US Open semi-finals will take place on Friday, a day after Gauff’s semi-final showdown with soon-to-be world No.1 Elena Rybakina.