Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton strike the match at the 2024 US Open as the two young superstars of Ame…see more

Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton strike the match at the 2024 US Open as the two young superstars of American tennis look to light up New York once again

The message appeared as a bunch of children invaded the show court on opening day of the US Open. They were from nearby, New York’s Carefree Racquet Club, and their job was to ‘show us what the next generation is all about’.

It was a fitting appetizer – before long, the mini nets had been collected and the court was cleared for another couple of youngsters to take center stage. On Monday, Ben Shelton, 21, and Coco Gauff, 20, were first and second on Arthur Ashe. Together they tasked with lighting the fuse on this US Open.

As a kid, Gauff would let her mind wander to high places. She dreamed of being US President and of joining the British Royal Family.

Last year, she met Barack and Michelle Obama en route to being crowned queen of Queens. Shelton fell in the semi-finals. But it was a run, on his first full season on tour, that catapulted the 21-year-old towards superstardom.

They have taken very different paths to this curtain raiser – Gauff had upset Venus Williams at Wimbledon by the age of 15, Shelton didn’t take this sport seriously until his mid-teens. But they are both homegrown talents with the tools to electrify this fortnight and rule American tennis for years.

They are friends, too. Gauff and Shelton recently took on an Escape Room together; they will struggle to flee the spotlight for some time yet.

On Monday, both did their job – Shelton, the next great hope of American men’s tennis, overcame Dominic Thiem in straight sets before Gauff – the sport’s poster girl and defending champion – overcame an early wobble to cruise past world No 66 Varvara Gracheva. They are American tennis’ present and its future.