By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday September 8, 2023
Coco Gauff didn’t enable herself to have any grand visions of profitable the US Open title this week. She’d been burned by that earlier than, earlier this yr at Roland-Garros, and the wise-beyond-her-years 19-year-old discovered her lesson.
“I thought of it, however I informed myself to get it out of my head, as a result of that is what I did at French,” Gauff mentioned after taking out Aryna Sabalenka, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday in Arthur Ashe Stadium. I used to be envisioning, you realize, what would occur if I’d win. I feel I wished it an excessive amount of.
“Final evening, I began a bit of bit, however actually, I simply known as my boyfriend, and I informed him let’s discuss till it is time to fall asleep so we spoke till 1:00 a.m. after which I went to sleep.
“I awakened this morning. Yeah, once I misplaced the primary set I nonetheless felt I used to be into the match and I mentioned, you realize, I will give it my all. You understand, no matter occurs occurs.”
Gauff: “Actually, you realize, the French Open second, I do not know in the event that they caught it on digicam however I watched Iga elevate up that trophy, and I watched her the entire time. I mentioned, I am not going to take my eyes off her, as a result of I need to really feel what that felt like for her.”
— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) September 10, 2023
Gauff, who grew to become the youngest American to win a US Open girls’s singles title since Serena Williams in 1999, says that her season took flip for the higher after this yr’s French Open, which was a pivotal expertise for her. She put an excessive amount of thought into defending her runner-up factors from final yr, and it harm her efficiency.
“I really feel like in all probability this French Open is actually the place it modified,” she mentioned of the uptick in type that result in hear profitable 18 of 19 matches for the reason that begin of the Citi Open in D.C. this August. “As a result of I felt strain to again up the ultimate, and I clearly did not. So I used to be, like, Okay, properly, I’ve received to reset. Then Wimbledon occurred, and that was a tricky, robust loss, as a result of I believed I used to be enjoying good tennis main as much as that.
Gauff additionally referred to her expertise at Roland-Garros, when she misplaced the ultimate to Iga Swiatek in 2022, as a formative expertise.
“Actually, you realize, the French Open second, I do not know in the event that they caught it on digicam however I watched Iga elevate up that trophy, and I watched her the entire time,” she mentioned. “I mentioned, I am not going to take my eyes off her, as a result of I need to really feel what that felt like for her.
“That felt like craziness at this time lifting this trophy. It hasn’t sunken in and I feel it in all probability will possibly in per week or so.”
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