They are growing fast these days, and none faster than Coco Gauff.
In early July, he was a shaky teenage tennis player who was probably headed for the wilderness of the game, struggling to answer questions about how a man who once appeared to be timeless, destined for in size, can still wait for his big moment.
In September, he was a US Open finalist, the star attraction of his home Grand Slam tournament and the new face of his sport in America.
Gauff, the 19-year-old prodigy from hot South Florida, defeated Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5, to reach her first US Open singles final on a hot and humid Thursday in night at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Gauff was tested like never before with Muchova’s game in the whole court and the most amazing in the atmosphere, but in the end the night went in front of a crowd that exploded for him again and again on the road.
“Some of the points are so loud I don’t know if my ears are good,” he said in his court interview.
Gauff will face Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the finals. Sabalenka, who will become world No. 1 when the new rankings come out next week, grabbed her spot in a topsy-turvy, three-set slugfest against Madison Keys, 0-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (10- 5), which stretched until almost 1 am Keys served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and a service break in the middle of the third. But she couldn’t cross the finish line to set up an all-American final as Sabalenka’s high-energy game proved to be enough.
“Amazing player,” Sabalenka said of Gauff. “I will fight for every point.”
Gauff took control of his match when a climate protest early in the second set caused a nearly 50-minute delay as the New York Police Department and security officials struggled to clear the protesters, a of them used an adhesive to glue his feet to the concrete on one of the upper levels of the stadium.
At the stoppage time, Gauff held a 6-4, 1-0 lead and was playing as well as he needed to take advantage of a tight-looking Muchova, who played with a black compression sleeve covering her right arm from her biceps. . to his wrist, and, he said, tape under the sleeve.
During the delay, Gauff and Muchova left the court and tried to stay loose in the locker room and the warm-up area. Muchova got a massage and jogged slowly down the hallway outside the locker room. Gauff, looking relaxed, walked over to a worker from the United States Tennis Association and bent down to see pictures of the protesters circulating on social media. He said later that he woke up Thursday morning thinking that a climate protest might happen, as happened at the French Open in 2022 and Wimbledon this year.
Maybe it was a premonition. Perhaps this is to prepare a player with a well-earned reputation for always doing his homework. He earned his diploma in time for spring last year despite spending all of his high school years on the pro tour. He and his family celebrated in Paris, then he won six matches at the French Open before losing to world No. 1, Iga Swiatek, in the final one day when he said that the moment overwhelmed him.
Thursday’s delay took the early juice out of the capacity crowd of nearly 24,000 fans who came ready to celebrate the new American tennis queen a year after watching Serena Williams play her last match. match, marking the end of an era in American tennis.
Over the past four years, Gauff has been the most likely candidate to fill the void, coming out of Wimbledon when she was 15 and making her French Open run last year. Since then, however, his progress seems to have stalled, especially on the big stages, and he has yet to make it past the quarterfinals of the US Open, the tournament where the spotlight shines brighter on him than anywhere else.
“I’m having more fun than I have in the last three years,” he said.
Two months ago, this run, and a championship that is now a match, seemed impossible, but Thursday night Gauff showed all the reasons why it was sudden. She has long possessed many of the tools needed to join the game’s elite – a dangerous serve, a hard backhand, and the speed and athleticism that combine for the best court coverage in the women’s game. .
In the last five weeks, he learned how to use the tools, strengthening the shaky forehand that was his nemesis. Against Muchova, she mixed forehand power with looping, and she hammered serves while slicing some of the corners. He cut backhands and charged the net. She controlled the points and rallied with Muchova until they lost to the Czech star. He earned his first match point with a feathered drop shot.
“He moved well, he really got the extra point,” Muchova said of Gauff. “That’s why you have to focus and finish the points. You should actually be on the court and see where he runs. You have to think about where to put the ball to finish it in the net or try to play it early.
Gauff was reeling midway through the first set, losing three games in a row after a 5-1 lead as Muchova began hitting hard and pushed Gauff back to her heels. He lost his serve again as he tried to end the match at 5-3 in the second.
It will take another three games; another break of Muchova’s serve; five more points in the game; an almost endless, penultimate lung-busting, 40-shot rally filled with a flurry of shots that hit within inches of the net; and moon balls floating 10 feet above it.
Gauff had inklings before and at the mid-marathon point. He said he knew a point like that would come, and knew he had two legs and lungs for it and that it was a matter of patience. As the balls flew back and forth, she began to think that this point would change the match and if she won it, Muchova would not have to endure another long test on the next match point.
“He’s definitely going for a winner or a miss,” he said. “That’s what happened.”
Gauff countered one last sharp beer from Muchova and hung on until the final backhand sailed high.
New York has been his since his first game in the tournament, and now tonight, and a spot in the finals, is his too.