By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday September 8, 2023
Coco Gauff didn’t permit herself to have any grand visions of successful the US Open title this week. She’d been burned by that earlier than, earlier this 12 months at Roland-Garros, and the wise-beyond-her-years 19-year-old discovered her lesson.
“I considered it, however I instructed 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, , what would occur if I’d win. I feel I wished it an excessive amount of.
“Final evening, I began a bit bit, however truthfully, I simply referred to as my boyfriend, and I instructed 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 awoke this morning. Yeah, once I misplaced the primary set I nonetheless felt I used to be into the match and I mentioned, , I will give it my all. You understand, no matter occurs occurs.”
Gauff: “Actually, , the French Open second, I do not know in the event that they caught it on digital camera 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 turned the youngest American to win a US Open ladies’s singles title since Serena Williams in 1999, says that her season took flip for the higher after this 12 months’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 12 months, and it harm her efficiency.
“I really feel like most likely this French Open is truthfully the place it modified,” she mentioned of the uptick in kind that result in hear successful 18 of 19 matches for the reason that begin of the Citi Open in D.C. this August. “As a result of I felt stress to again up the ultimate, and I clearly did not. So I used to be, like, Okay, effectively, I’ve received to reset. Then Wimbledon occurred, and that was a tricky, powerful loss, as a result of I assumed 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, , the French Open second, I do not know in the event that they caught it on digital camera 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 right this moment lifting this trophy. It hasn’t sunken in and I feel it most likely will perhaps in every week or so.”
