American Coco Gauff says winning the French Open was always on top of her list right from her younger days; admits it was tough to put it across gritty World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in final
French Open women’s singles champion Coco Gauff poses with the winner’s trophy in Paris yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Coco Gauff said a maiden French Open trophy was “one I really wanted” after securing the title with win over Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday.
The 21-year-old secured a hard-fought 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-4 win over the World No. 1 in difficult, windy conditions at Roland Garros. “I felt like this is one I really wanted, because I do think this was one of the tournaments that when I was younger that I felt I had the best shot of winning,” said American star Gauff.
“So I just felt like if I went through my career and didn’t get at least one of these, I would feel regrets and stuff.
“While playing Aryna in the final, I was just, ‘I just gotta go for it and try my best to get through the match’.”
Long-awaited success
It was a long-awaited success for Gauff, who was in tears after losing the 2022 French Open final to Iga Swiatek as a teenager and had reached at least the quarter-finals in Paris in each of the previous four years. “That ceremony when Iga won, I just remembered trying to take it all in and pay attention to every detail and just feel like I wanted that experience for myself,” added the World No. 2, who also came back from a set down to beat Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open final.
“When the anthem got played, I vividly remember watching her, pretty emotional when the Polish anthem got played. I was, like, ‘Wow, this is such a cool moment’.
“So when the (USA) anthem got played today, I kind of had those reflections.”
Gauff is the first woman to beat a World No. 1 in a Grand Slam final from a set down since Venus Williams against Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon in 2005. It was her first title since lifting the WTA Finals trophy last year, after suffering final defeats in both the Madrid and Italian Opens to Sabalenka and Jasmine Paolini.
This one’s for the Knicks
USA film director and diehard New York Knicks fan Spike Lee was in attendance and celebrated with Gauff. “I wanted to tell him, I had to do it, that even though the Knicks didn’t win, I gave him something to cheer for,” she said, in reference to the Knicks’s defeat by the Indiana Pacers in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals recently.
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