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Home Sport US Open 202 final: Coco Gauff faces Aryna Sabalenka in New York showpiece
Sport
September 9, 2023

US Open 202 final: Coco Gauff faces Aryna Sabalenka in New York showpiece

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Coco Gauff will meet incoming world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open final on Saturday as she bids for a first Grand Slam title.

The 19-year-old, appearing in her second major singles final, is the youngest American finalist in New York since Serena Williams in 1999.

Belarusian Sabalenka, who will become the new number one on Monday, is aiming for a second major title of the year after her Australian Open triumph.

The winner will earn $3m (£2.4m).

Gauff leads the head-to-head, having won three of their five meetings on the WTA Tour.

However, fellow first-time US Open finalist Sabalenka won their most recent match, a 6-4 6-0 victory at Indian Wells earlier this year.

Gauff is on an 11-match winning streak heading into the final, and has won 17 of her 18 matches since a first-round exit at Wimbledon.

She registered an impressive straight-set win over Czech 10th seed Karolina Muchova in the semi-finals – despite a 49-minute mid-match delay caused by climate protesters.

“After Wimbledon, I wasn’t expecting to do well in this hard-court season. I’m really proud of the way I have been able to turn this season around,” Gauff said.

“I have just been focusing on myself. I believe that I have the maturity and ability to do it.

“Regardless of what happens on Saturday, I’m really proud of how I have been handling the last few weeks.”

Gauff prepared for her home Slam by claiming her two biggest titles to date at Washington and Cincinnati in August and will now look to go one better than her 2022 French Open final defeat by Iga Swiatek.

Should Gauff win, she will also earn 2,000 ranking points, which would lift her to a career-high of third in the world.

Sabalenka will keep fighting ‘no matter what’

Aryna Sabalenka celebrates
Sabalenka is the first women’s player to make the semi-finals of all four Grand Slams in a calendar year since Serena Williams in 2016

Sabalenka’s climb to world number one is the culmination of the best year of her career, one in which she delivered a long-awaited Grand Slam singles title after a string of semi-final defeats.

Following her Australian Open triumph she suffered narrow defeats in the semi-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon, but avoided the same fate in New York with a stunning comeback from 6-0 5-3 down against Madison Keys on Thursday.

It was the first time Sabalenka had dropped a set at this year’s tournament.

But she won 14 of the last 19 points to close out victory, even managing to refocus after celebrating prematurely when she reached seven points in the first-to-10 match tie-break.

On Saturday, she will attempt to become the first woman to win both hard court Slams in the same year since Angelique Kerber in 2016.

“I think the Australian Open final will definitely help, with all those emotions I went through in that final,” Sabalenka added.

“I’ll be different in this final. I know which kind of emotions to expect. I know how to handle them.

“Going into this final, I think I just have to focus on myself and prepare myself for another fight.

“No matter what, just keep fighting and keep playing my best and do my best. What else can you do? You just have to be there and you have to fight for it.”  — bbc.com