Gauff’s Greatness: Top-Ranked American Woman Looks To Add Another U.S. Open Title

Tennis can be a cruel sport sometimes. It can build you up to the highest peaks, and just as quickly, it can bring you back down and humble you. Coco Gauff felt the highs and lows of that pendulum this summer in Europe. 

Gauff reached the pinnacle of the sport when she came back from a set down to defeat world number one Aryna Sabalenka to win the French Open and claim the second major title of her young career. 

“This is one I really wanted, because I do think this was one of the tournaments that, when I was younger, I felt I had the best shot of winning,” Gauff said during her Parisian trophy ceremony. “I just felt like if I went through my career, and didn’t get at least one of these, I would feel regrets. Today, playing Aryna…I’ve just got to go for it and try my best to get through the match. That’s what I did.”

Gauff overcame Sabalenka and difficult, windy conditions to win the title. From there she made the media rounds on television that come with winning a major, appearing on everything from Good Morning America to the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

But the tennis calendar waits for no one, and following the French Open, it was quickly grass-court season. Gauff returned to the court in Berlin but lost her opening-round match to qualifier Xinyu Wang, her only grass court match prior to Wimbledon following her triumph at Roland Garros. 

Despite the whirlwind interviews, and not a lot of time to train on the faster grass surface ahead of Wimbledon, Gauff was confident heading into the year’s third major.

“I’m very much someone who can look ahead very quickly. The first two days after I was just trying to really take it in and stuff. Once I got back from New York, I was pretty much focused on here, just thinking about what I need to do, where I feel the areas of my game I need to improve on,” Gauff explained. “I think for me I’d rather just stay in the moment and think about this, and kind of forget French, and then revisit it maybe at the end of the season.”

While Gauff said the right things and had the right mentality, there is a reason that a woman has won both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year just twice since 1997 (Serena Williams in 2002 and 2015). And in just two short weeks, Gauff went from French Open champion to a first-round exit at Wimbledon, as she fell to Ukrainian Dayan Yastremska in straight sets, her earliest loss at a major since 2023. 

She was candid in her post-match press conference about the difficulty of bouncing back so quickly which she believes played a major role in her defeat.

“I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards, so I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate, and also get back into it. But it’s the first time coming off a win and having to play Wimbledon,” confessed Gauff. “I definitely learned a lot of what I would and would not do again. I mean, also, she played great. I saw the draw and knew it would be a tough match for me. I knew today would be tough.”

When asked how she would approach a similar scenario next time around, Gauff answered:

“I think I would [think if I should] play Berlin again or not, if that were to happen with the French Open, just because I only practiced two days. I don’t know, I feel like [on] the surface I could have used more matches. It’s like finding the puzzle. I don’t like to play the week before. It’s a quick turnaround, so I think just trying to learn whether it’s better to train more and maybe play Bad Homburg or Eastbourne. I think when that time comes around again, if it comes around again, I’ll approach it differently.”

With all of her success and mature demeanor, it’s easy to forget sometimes that Gauff is still only 21-years-old. So while her loss at Wimbledon was painful, it can only serve as a learning experience for Gauff. And if Gauff has shown us anything during the first few years of her career, it’s that she won’t be discouraged or broken from a tough defeat. She is turning the page, understanding that losses happen, and all she can do is focus her attention and energy on the next major of the year: the U.S. Open.

“I’m not going to dwell on this too long because I want to do well at the U.S. Open,” she said. “Maybe losing here in the first-round isn’t the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset.”

Gauff is a former U.S. Open champion, as she lifted the trophy in 2023 for the first major title of her career, a match in which Sabalenka was again on the losing side. Her magnetic personality and down-to-earth charm makes her a fan favorite in New York, and with each match she plays, she’ll have the support of the crowd behind her when she takes the court at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. 

She is doing everything in her power to be ready to be at her best when she arrives in New York at the end of August. Gauff will not take part in the new revamped Mixed Doubles Championships of the event, which takes place the week before the main draw, citing sponsor obligations and commitments. But she is eager to perform in New York once again, as she aims to win her third career Slam, and her second U.S. Open title in three years.

“I’m super excited to be back in the States playing, especially in Cincinnati, and obviously at the U.S. Open,” she said in an interview with USOpen.org. “It’ll be my first time entering the U.S. Open with a Grand Slam that year, so I’m really excited for that, mainly just to see the crowd.”