Coco Gauff won her first major title at the US Open with a victory over Aryna Sabalenka in front of an adoring crowd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. After the match, the 19-year-old tennis sensation fell to the ground and laid on the court before sobbing in celebration. After hugging Sabalenka, Gauff ran up into the stands to tearfully hug her parents and the rest of her team.
Moments later, Gauff told the star-studded crowd, which included Diane Keaton, Nicole Kidman, and Spike Lee, that she still hadn’t fully processed the victory and openly discussed her faith. She told ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez. “I feel like I’m a little bit in shock in this moment. That 2022 French Open loss was a heartbreak for me. But I realized God put you through tribulations and trials, and that makes this moment even sweeter than I could have imagined.”
She continued, “I don’t pray for results. I just ask that I get the strength to give it my all. Whatever happens, happens. I’m so blessed in this life. I’m just thankful for this moment. I don’t have any words for it, to be honest.”
Super Bowl champion head coach Tony Dungy had some choice words for ESPN’s “SportsCenter” X account after Gauff’s win. After she beat Sabalenka, the “SportsCenter” account wrote that the tennis phenom “took a moment to soak it all in after winning her first Grand Slam title.” Dungy called out the account, asserting that Gauff was praying. He wrote, “I hate to break this to you, SportsCenter, but Coco Gauff was not ‘soaking it all in’ at this moment. She was praying. She has been very open about her Christian faith in the past. It seems pretty obvious what she is doing here.”
Gauff shared what was going through her mind when she dropped to her knees in prayer as the U.S. Open crowd roared its approval after her thrilling championship victory. “I was just saying thank you, and I understood all the tough times were just to make that moment even sweeter,” Gauff told Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie in an exclusive interview on TODAY. “I think if it came easy, I wouldn’t feel as appreciative as I did in that moment, clearly.”
Gauff is the youngest American to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999 and the first American player to win a major title since Sofia Kenin at the Australian Open in 2020. Gauff also became the first woman to win the title in New York after dropping the first set in three matches during her title run since Williams, also in 1999.
When speaking to the media after the match, Gauff said it was an honor to have her name listed on the same trophy as Williams and her sister Venus, who won the title a combined eight times. She said, “I mean, they’re the reason why I have this trophy today, to be honest,” Gauff said. “They have allowed me to believe in this dream. Growing up, there weren’t too many Black tennis players dominating the sport. It was literally at that time when I was younger; it was just them that I can remember. Obviously, more came because of their legacy, so it made the dream more believable. But all the things that they had to go through, they made it easier for someone like me to do this.”
Despite still being a teenager, Gauff has been one of the sport’s most recognizable stars since she burst onto the scene at Wimbledon in 2019 and reached the fourth round as a 15-year-old qualifier. Since then, she’s won five WTA titles and reached the final at the 2022 French Open.