Gyan's spot-kick was awarded for Zdravko Kuzmanovic's needless handball in the box after Serbia had lost Aleksandar Lukovic to two bookings.
And the noise which met 2010 Africa Cup of Nations finalists Ghana's victory, the first by an African country at this year's World Cup, by a partisan African crowd was truly deafening.
Ghana's victory puts them in pole position to emulate their performance in 2006 and qualify for the knock-out rounds in a tough group including Germany and Australia.
"Of course for me personally in my job this is a great victory but I'm sorry for the Serbian team," he said.
"I know many of their players and I could see how saddened they were but I tried to concentrate on my job and perform my duties in a professional manner.
"Maybe we got lucky, they're a very good team and it's difficult to play against them.
"I hope they get six points in their next two matches."
Serbia coach Radomir Antic admitted that qualifying for the knock-out stages would now be difficult.
"Of course this is a big blow for us, it's bad to start the World Cup with a defeat," he said.
"But we have two more games and we must put this behind us and look forward to playing Germany and Australia."
However he stopped short of saying they would have to beat Germany in their next match.
"It's difficult to say, we started with a defeat so now we must prepare in a different way when it comes to play Germany."
Chances were few and far between in a poor first half and every time either side played a pass with either pace or distance, the receiver was taking so long to bring the ball under control that the move lost its momentum.
What few chances there were largely came from dead ball situations.
Gyan fired a 25 yard free-kick over the bar on four minutes while Serbia's Aleksandar Kolarov also curled a free-kick just over.
Things picked up after the restart as Prince Tagoe dinked a cross from the right to the back post but Andre Ayew, the son of Ghana legend Abedi Pele, headed wide from close range when it looked easier to score.
Up the other end Marko Pantelic played an identical ball into Nikola Zigic but the Valencia forward somehow played the ball back away from goal.
Gyan then clipped the outside of the post with a header from John Pantsil's long throw into the six-yard box.
Ghana had been the better side and their hopes of finding a winner improved on 74 minutes as centre-back Lukovic was dismissed for a second booking for tugging Gyan's arm.
And yet it was Serbia who should have broken the deadlock as substitute Danko Lazovic beat Pantsil and pulled the ball back for Milos Krasic but his left-foot effort was straight at goalkeeper Richard Kingson who palmed the ball over the bar.
From the resulting corner Manchester United centre-back Nemanja Vidic sent a bullet header a touch too high.
Chelsea right-back Branislav Ivanovic then burst forward and hit a dipping drive just over.
But then substitute Kuzmanovic's flailing arm connected with a deep cross into the box and Gyan thrashed the ball home.
And the Rennes striker was denied a second by the post in injury time as he curled the ball around goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic.
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