In the U.S. Open women’s final on Saturday, Coco Gauff claimed she was overcome with delight upon realizing she had won, adding that her triumph “still doesn’t feel real at all.”
Being the first American to win the title at the age of 19 since Serena Williams in 1999, the jubilant 19-year-old created history.
The famous athlete, grinning in a yellow dress, said in an exclusive interview on Monday’s “TODAY” program on NBC, “It’s still crazy.” “You’re a Grand Slam champion,” I told myself last night. But it doesn’t feel true at all.
Gauff defeated Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, to win her first major championship.
After winning in front of a boisterous audience of enthusiastic fans and A-list celebrities, the adolescent collapsed to the ground & sobbed on the tennis court at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. Before embracing her family, she gave the camera a heart sign.
I didn’t want to tell myself it was a match point on the match points because I didn’t want to start trembling, so I felt like it hit all at once. My prior matches (had) taken me like six, seven match points to win, and that was on the first one, so I was a little stunned and couldn’t breathe as well when it eventually came and the match was over, Gauff said.
YOU GO COCO! pic.twitter.com/ztI2h0tdul
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2023
She claimed that after winning, she had a surge of joy, saying, “I would think in the past it would have been more relief than joy, yet I think with all the development and maturation that I’ve done it’s certainly more joy than relief.”
She bowed her head and prayed after winning.
“I was just expressing thanks and that I knew that all the hard moments had been for that moment to be even sweeter. I guess I wouldn’t feel as grateful as I did at the time if it had been simple,” she remarked.
The timing of her victory, she claimed, seemed predestined.
“It goes without saying that when you lose, you wonder, ‘Why isn’t it happening now?'” Doing it in the United States, in New York City, couldn’t have been more extraordinary at this time.
Gauff admitted that the night before the match, she talked with her boyfriend until one in the morning.
They discussed “everything but [the match],” according to her. I responded “no” when he asked whether I wanted to talk about it, she recounted.
When she was last in a Grand Slam final, she couldn’t sleep the entire night, but talking to him made it easier for her to fall asleep.
She contacted her brothers and grandma from the court as soon as she had won.
“The first two individuals I called were both of my brothers, but they didn’t pick up. Then I called my grandma, but someone else picked up,” she chuckled. The ceremony had already begun when my brother finally called me back.
Gauff remarked that during the game, her father wore a shirt that said, “Imagine.”
He simply stated that he purchased it at the start of the competition. He claimed to have an image in his head that I would advance to the final, and if I did, he would wear that garment, according to Gauff. “And I believe that all you need to do is to keep working toward your goals; just imagine that your dreams could come true.”
Following her amazing performance at Wimbledon in 2019, where she competed as a 15-year-old qualifier and advanced to the fourth round, Gauff rose to prominence as one of tennis’ most recognizable players.
Her mother, Candi Gauff, credited her daughter’s self-discipline for her accomplishments.
“Coco is a really committed, disciplined individual. She was a really talented child. She always put out her best effort. On the “TODAY” program, Candi Gauff claimed that it originates from within her.