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The crowd of 28,143 wasn’t carrying Coco Gauff anymore. She was matching its energy, even surpassing it.
A flat start was now just that — a start.
Gauff, the sixth-seeded American and the fan favorite at the 2023 U.S. Open, had just put away an easy forehand volley at the net, and her right fist shook with positive, I’m-going-to-do-this emotions.
It became one big party at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday, a celebration of this poised 19-year-old.
It was only the first game of the third set, but there was no question it was a turning point.
After she lost the first set to Aryna Sabalenka, then won the second, Gauff was picking up steam.
The inconsistency of the first set was behind her.
Gauff, not Sabalenka, was the one carrying play now.
Soon, the Floridian had closed out a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory and made herself the first American woman to win the U.S. Open since Sloane Stephens in 2017.
Sabalenka, who will become the world’s top-ranked player on Monday, wasn’t overpowering Gauff anymore in the third set.
The 25-year-old from Belarus was wilting, and Gauff’s relentless running was paying off by keeping points alive.
Gauff didn’t tire.
She kept on using her legs, going baseline to baseline, thrilling the Open fans with her rare mixture of speed, athleticism and power.
She broke Sabalenka four times over her final seven service games, and won six of seven games overall bridging the end of the second set and start of the third, making it look easy at the end.
“I think the three words I would [use to describe this] is ‘Dreams come true,’ and that this is crazy,” Gauff said.
In her on-court interview, Gauff went out of her way to thank her detractors.
Like most teenagers, she reads social media, even right before the biggest match of her life.
“Up until 10 minutes before the match, I was reading comments from people saying I wasn’t going to win the match and it put the fire in me,” Gauff said.
She added: “I can’t wait to look on Twitter right now.”
Through the first five games of the third set, Gauff didn’t commit a single unforced error, and she started the set by winning 17 of the first 25 points.
She closed the match with a backhand winner down the line, then collapsed on the court as tears began to flow. She eventually made her way to her family, sharing a hug with her father, Corey, her coach and the man she calls the “captain” of her team.
It was Corey, Gauff said, who encouraged her to hire Brad Gilbert after Wimbledon, and she has gone 18-1 since then.
Corey took her to the U.S. Open as a kid, igniting her love for the sport.
Saturday, for what she said was the first time in her life, she saw her father cry.
“He doesn’t want me to tell y’all that, but he got caught in 4K,” she joked. “He thinks he’s so hard.”
Gauff’s first Grand Slam victory made history: She’s the youngest American U.S. Open champion since Serena Williams, also at 19, won the title in 1999.
The win marked the third time in this tournament that Gauff had lost the first set only to prevail.
“I mean, it doesn’t get more dramatic than that to be honest,” she said.
Gauff’s game plan was clear: Let Sabalenka beat herself. Keep rallies alive with her legs and hope her powerful opponent made mistakes.
Gauff wasn’t consistent enough in the first set.
She committed 10 unforced errors (she had just 19 overall in the match) and Sabalenka took advantage, reeling off the final four games and winning 10 of the last 13 points.
The young American found herself in a 15-40 hole to start the second set, a seminal moment in the match. She couldn’t afford to go down right away.
Sabalenka, however, played herself out of the break, going for too much and Gauff was able to hold serve.
She began to find herself at that point, steadily building momentum.
Backed by the partisan crowd that roared after every opening for her, she built a 3-1 lead after she broke Sabalenka for the second time. Chants of “Let’s go Coco,” exploded before she served out the second set, and the roar from the crowd grew even louder when she held to force one final set for the championship.
“She was moving just unbelievable today,” Sabalenka said.
Since Gauff came onto the scene in 2019 as the youngest Wimbledon qualifier in the Open Era and reached the fourth round of her Grand Slam debut, this kind of rise was forecast.
She was viewed as the next great American women’s player, following in the footsteps of Serena Williams.
And in the first U.S. Open since Williams retired, Gauff won her first Grand Slam crown, further establishing herself as one of the top women in the world.
“I’m looking at it, and she’s won this a lot of times,” Gauff said of Williams’ six U.S. Open singles titles.
Her win Saturday was Gauff’s first, and she may just be getting started.
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