‘Disrespect and Lack of Care’ – Venus, Serena Williams Error During Coco Gauff’s US Open Coverage Sparks Fan Outrage
Coco Gauff pulled off a gritty comeback against 19-year-old French Open champion Mirra Andreeva in the US Open quarterfinals, winning 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2. The victory marked Gauff’s 90th Grand Slam match win.
During the match, ESPN aired a graphic highlighting the American women with the most Grand Slam match wins before turning 23. Venus Williams topped the list, but the graphic contained a major error involving her photo. Fans were quick to notice the mistake and criticize ESPN on social media.
Fans Criticize ESPN After Serena Williams’ Photo Is Mistakenly Used for Venus Williams During Coco Gauff’s US Open QF Win
The graphic was meant to highlight Gauff’s achievement alongside some of the most successful American women in Grand Slam history: Venus Williams (107), Serena Williams (103), Mary Joe Fernandez (93), Evert (90), and Gauff (89 before the match).
However, there was a major error, as an ESPN graphic showed different photos of Serena Williams next to both Serena’s and Venus’s names.
A fanpage on X pointed this out in a post: “The disrespect and lack of care or effort towards the Williams sisters or acknowledgment by random @espn associates who have never heard of these people… hire people who GAFFF @espn.”
It did not go unnoticed by viewers, with some fans questioning how such an error made it onto the broadcast. “It is 2026. How are we still making this mistake?” an X user wrote.
Others also pointed out that the error was not addressed during the broadcast. “I hope whoever was commenting on air called this out. Super lame,” one tweeted.
Another fan added, “I’m sooo glad I wasn’t the only one that saw this! And the fact that no one on the ESPN network said anything. NGL, I felt some type of way.”
An X user admitted the two identical images left them confused, writing, “Omg when I saw this I was so confused by the 2 serena images I failed to read the names below,” while another commented, “This is absurd.”
Meanwhile, one even called for a change in broadcasting rights, writing, “USO & Wimbledon need to give its broadcast/stream rights to TennisChannel as much as I dislike their commentary.”
Venus also won four Grand Slam singles titles before turning 23, including two titles at the US Open. And now, at just 22 years and 5 months old, Gauff is writing her name in the same history books.
With Gauff advancing to join Sabalenka, Rybakina, and Pegula, it also marks only the second time in the Open Era that the top four seeds have reached the US Open women’s singles semifinals.
The only other time was in 1975, when Chris Evert, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova, and Evonne Goolagong Cawley made up the final four.
Now, Gauff will face the newly crowned World No. 1 Elena Rybakina in the blockbuster semifinal on Thursday night.
