Coco Gauff can now be referred to as a Grand Slam champion. That's after she finally reached the pinnacle of success at Flushing Meadows Saturday night, defeating Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open women's singles tournament finals.
It did not look as though Gauff would come away with a victory when she struggled against Sabalenka early on. But after losing the first set, Gauff stormed back and pulled off a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win. Her success felt like pure vindication for Gauff, an absolute answer to all those who doubted her ability to win a Grand Slam. On Saturday, her haters had nothing to say.
“Thank you to the people who didn’t believe in me, Coco Gauff said after taking care of business against Sabalenka. To those who thought they were putting water on my fire, you were really adding gas to it. Now I’m really burning so bright right now,” Gauff added.
Before facing Sabalenka, Coco Gauff defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals and Karolina Muchova in the semis.
Gauff started joining Grand Slam events in 2019 and had come close to winning one before. In 2021, she reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time when she did so in that year's French Open. The following year, she made it to the finals at Roland Garros but lost to Iga Świątek. Nevertheless, the future looked so bright at the time for Gauff, and it's shining even brighter today for the 19-year-old tennis phenom, who is a superstar in the making — if she isn't already.