10 September 2023 , 18:04
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Coco Gauff has pleaded with fans not to sing a certain song after she captured the US Open title.
After bursting on the scene as a 15-year-old beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019 and four years later, the American joined the elite club of Grand Slam winners following her triumph in New York. With the roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium closed, there was a cauldron of noise inside the world’s largest tennis stadium as Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in just over two hours to secure the biggest win of her career so far.
Some of Gauff’s legion of fans are celebrating her win by playing and singing O.T. Genasis’ record titled ‘CoCo’, which has the famous hook of “I’m in love with the Coco”. During her press conference after claiming victory at Flushing Meadows, the 19-year-old requested her avid followers to stop singing the track as the chorus is a reference to cocaine, a class-A drug. “No, I did not want them to play that because it does not mean my name,” Gauff chuckled. “It means something else, but sometimes people in the crowd do say that, and I'm, like, 'Yeah, that's cute, but please no'."
Gauff gave her final press conference of the tournament after becoming the first American player to win the US Open since Sloane Stephens in 2017. She did not start her first final in New York well, losing the first set as Sabalenka broke the American's serve three times.
Facing a bombardment of heavy groundstrokes from the soon-to-be new World No.1, Gauff’s defence was near impenetrable once the second set began. As she sprinted to retrieve more and more shots from Sabalenka that may have winners against most other players, the Australian Open champion began to get frustrated.
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More rally errors began to spring from Sabalenka’s racket and Gauff claimed the only break of the second set to lead 3-1. She staved off three break points in that set before sending the final into a deciding set. It was more of the same from Gauff, who was creating some excellent angles that drew Sabalenka out of her comfort zone and left her unable to dictate with her power.
As a result, more errors came from the Sabalenka racket and the 19-year-old surged into a 4-0 lead in set three. With the crowd roaring her on, Gauff then served it out to win her 10th match in a Grand Slam after dropping the first set, and became the first American teenager to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999.
Coco Gauff wants fans to not sing O.T. Genasis’ song titled ‘CoCo’ as it refers to a Class-A drug (Robert Prange/Getty Images)"It means so much to me," an elated Gauff said during the trophy presentation. "I feel like I’m a little bit in shock in this moment. That French Open loss was a heartbreak for me, but I realized God puts you through tribulations and trials, and that makes this moment even sweeter than I could imagine. My dad took me to this tournament, sitting right there, watching Venus and Serena compete, so it’s really incredible to be here on this stage."
The US Open victory caps a terrific late summer for Gauff following her disappointing first-round exit at Wimbledon. Gauff entered the Citi Open in Washington and won the title without dropping a set. She backed that up with a quarterfinal appearance at the Canadian Open, before capturing the title in Cincinnati. She entered the final major of the year under enormous pressure, but she embraced it and fired back at her critics after becoming a Grand Slam champion for the first time.
“Thank you for the people who didn’t believe in me,” she said. “A month ago, I won a 500 title -- people said I would stop at that. Two weeks ago, I won a Masters title, and people said that was as big as it was going to get. Three weeks later, I’m here with this trophy. To those who thought they were putting water on my fire, they were adding gas to it. Now I’m burning so bright right now.”