"That my girl" - Jessica Pegula, Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton and other tennis players react to Coco Gauff winning Citi Open 2023 title
Coco Gauff celebrated the biggest win of her career so far by lifting the Mubadala Citi DC Open trophy on Monday, August 7.
Gauff registered a comfortable victory over fellow American Hailey Baptiste in the opening round of the tournament. She then defeated Belinda Bencic and Liudmila Samsonova en-route to the finals.
The American overcame fourth seed Maria Sakkari in straight-sets in the final to clinch her maiden WTA 500 title and her first title on home soil.
Congratulations poured in for Gauff, particularly from the American tennis contingent, for her triumph at the Citi Open. Her doubles partner and former Citi Open winner Jessica Pegula took to Instagram to share a picture from the on-court ceremony with Gauff holding the trophy and wrote:
"That my girl"
Ben Shelton and Chris Eubanks reacted to a poster by the tournament's official Instagram channel announcing the women's singles champion. Eubanks wrote:
"Proud of you Champ @cocogauff"
Taylor Townsend shared a picture of the teen sensation on-court taking a selfie with the trophy posted by the WTA channel and wrote:
"Proud of you @cocogauff"
Frances Tiafoe also took to Instagram to congratulate his compatriot both on her win and on reaching her career-high ranking of World No. 4 in his inimitable style. He posted a short clip of Gauff showing off some of her dance moves on court and wrote:
"Congrats killa imma say the real Milly week tho. jk congrats on #4 @cocogauff"
"I'm glad I was able to bounce back" - Coco Gauff on winning the Citi Open 2023
Coco Gauff credited her 2023 Mubadala Citi DC Open title win to her new coaches Pere Riba and Brad Gilbert.
Under the guidance of Riba and Gilbert, who previously coached Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi, Gauff appeared more confident and agressive on court.
ALLLL CAPSSS W
@CocoGauff | #MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/ue9ZNEDIDm
In a post-match on-court interview, Gauff spoke of their team effort and how the win was a confidence booster after her first-round exit at this year's Wimbledon.
"It's our first tournament as a full team," the World No. 4 said. "I'm glad that we were able to make this result. I know those who were with me at Wimbledon, it was really tough a couple of weeks ago. We were all feeling it. I'm glad I was able to bounce back."
Coco Gauff is likely to be seen next at the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal scheduled to begin on Monday, August 7.