Coco Gauff shrugged off a poor start to move towards her first Grand Slam title at the age of 19, defeating Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the US Open final on Saturday. A wild crowd that kept making noise from beginning to end.
Gauff, who is from Florida, is the first American teenager to win the country’s major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999. If last year’s US Open was about saying goodbye to Williams as she competed for the last time, this year’s two weeks in New York were about “Welcome to the big time!” turned into. For Goff.
It’s the kind of win that has been expected of Gauff ever since she became the youngest qualifier in Wimbledon history at the age of 15 and reached the fourth round in her Grand Slam debut in 2019.