"I'd found myself crying" - Coco Gauff emphasizes importance of her US Open triumph after feeling "the clock was just ticking"
World No. 2, Coco Gauff recently highlighted the significance of her US Open win last year. Gauff defeated then-No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to claim her maiden Grand Slam title.
Gauff didn't win a title in the first half of the 2023 season, but she made a strong comeback when the North American hard-court swing began. She won the Citi Open, her first WTA 500 title, and the Cincinnati Open in the lead-up to the New York Major.
The defining moment for the then-19-year-old came when she claimed her maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open, becoming the first American teenager to win the tournament in over two decades.
Gauff recently shot a commercial with Baker Tilly US, where she reflected on her US Open victory, sharing that it took her a week to fully believe she had won her first Major. The 20-year-old revealed that she cried upon realizing she had achieved her teenage dream.
"I won the US Open and I still just didn't feel it. It took me a week to actually believe that it had happened. I had found myself like crying or sometimes, not like sadness but like disbelief. I wanted to win a Grand Slam as a teenager so I felt that the clock was just ticking. Yeah I just didn't expect it," Gauff said.
Gauff added that winning a Grand Slam is every tennis player's dream, which is why they give their best.
"Every tennis player's dream is to win a Grand Slam so everybody is just giving it there all and I will let you know, when I win a next one, how it goes,"
Gauff's most recent appearance was at the 2024 Canadian Open, where she was seeded No. 2. She faced a third-round exit in the WTA 1000 event, losing to Diana Shnaider 6-1, 6-1.
Coco Gauff is scheduled to face Yulia Putintseva in the second round of the 2024 Cincinnati Open
Coco Gauff will start her campaign at the Cincinnati Open against Yulia Putintseva in the second round, having received a bye in the first round. This will be Gauff's fourth meeting with the World No. 34, where she holds a 3-0 head-to-head advantage.
Putintseva, who convincingly defeated Britain's Harriet Dart in the first round of the WTA 1000 event, has won 32 out of 48 matches in the 2024 season. Her best performance came at the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham, where she won the title by defeating Ajla Tomljanović in the final.
Meanwhile, Coco Gauff will enter the tournament as a defending champion with a 36-12 win-loss record. Whoever out of the American or Putintseva wins, will face either 13th seed Anna Kalinskaya or Paula Badosa in the third round in Cincinnati.