Coco Gauff: An American Champion Who’s Just Getting Started

The U.S. tennis sensation, still just 21, notches her second major title by winning the French Open. Wimbledon awaits.Coco Gauff celebrates with the trophy after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final. PHOTO: MATTHIEU MIRVILLE/ZUMA PRESS

By Jason Gay

We live in a golden era of unsolicited opinions—and wowie, everybody’s had an opinion on Coco Gauff.

Here are an assorted few. Gauff’s ultra-talented, but has holes in her game. She needs work on her forehand. She needs work on her serve. She needs work on her consistency. She’s got to hurry up, and start winning more.

Those are opinions. Here are facts: Gauff is a two-time major tournament champion, halfway to the career Grand Slam.

She’s also just 21.

On Saturday, Gauff notched a rollicking three-set victory over World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open women’s final. It’s Gauff’s second major after her triumph at the 2023 U.S. Open, and another leap in one of tennis’s most promising young careers. It confirms Gauff as the starriest American tennis player since her childhood idol, Serena Williams.

It’s also a lesson, about patience, and time, and how even the obvious phenom needs space to grow and improve. Gauff’s been marked for excellence for years, ever since breaking through in her midteens, and it added an extra burden to her development and transition into adulthood.

Not a lot of fun, that microscope. All of Gauff’s learning, mistakes, shortcomings—all the stuff young people and young athletes get to do in relative obscurity, she’s had to do it under public view. Which means scrutiny. Which means second-guessing. Which means all those unsolicited opinions.

Here’s an opinion: Coco’s right where she needs to be.
Coco Gauff collapsed to the floor at Roland Garros after clinching her first French Open title. PHOTO: MARCIN CHOLEWINSKI/ZUMA PRESS

She really earned this most recent title. Roland-Garros is a doozy, because clay court tennis is grueling tennis. The fickle surface challenges bodies, neutralizes power, frustrates footwork, and oh right, alters its response depending on the weather, the wind, the roof and the even time of day.

It’s tennis that behaves like a crazy uncle. You never know exactly what you’re getting.

Gauff loves it in Paris. She’d been tormented at Roland-Garros, but she had plenty of success there, too. She won the tournament as a junior, reached the finals in 2022 and the semis in 2024, losing both times to Iga Świątek, the three-time reigning champion who Sabalenka dismissed Thursday in the semifinals.

With Swiatek drifting lately, Gauff vs. Sabalenka felt both inevitable and fresh. Here was No. 2 vs. No. 1. Here was a chance for Sabalenka to avenge Gauff’s win in the 2023 U.S. Open final. Here were two elite players craving a trophy they’d never held.

In the end, Gauff delivered a masterpiece in patience, preparation and execution.

Sabalenka favors a certain style of tennis: everything, all at once. The 27-year-old Belarusian’s added texture to her game in recent years, including a clever drop shot, but most of the time, she’s a baseline thunderbolt, rearing back and letting it rip.
Coco Gauff serves during her French Open final victory, in which she recovered from losing the opening set to defeat world No. 1 Aryna Sabelanka. PHOTO: JULIEN MATTIA/ZUMA PRESS

Gauff turned to a necessary strategy. She would do what she did in New York: She would wait Sabalenka out. She would ride the torrent, chase every ball, not let a one-set deficit (after a nifty comeback) undo her. She would make Sabalenka rip a forehand and then another one, increasing the odds that Sabalenka’s habitual erraticism would tilt the match in Gauff’s favor.

Which is precisely what happened in Gauff’s 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Surely there are those—including Sabalenka—who will argue that Gauff benefited from an opponent’s self-destruction, that Sabalenka’s penchant for missile attacks backfired over a windy afternoon in which she fired a messy 70 unforced errors.

But that’s too neat—and gives Gauff’s talent short shrift. All day long, she made Sabalenka work, chasing shots into the corners, displaying a fitness and endurance that’s hard to match on the women’s tour. It’s one thing to say you’re going to make your opponent hit multiple shots—you have to have the mettle to do it. Few players cover the court like Gauff. That’s a trained skill.

And she didn’t just play defense. Gauff’s first serve was much better than Sabalenka’s. Her improving forehand found spaces. Her backhand—well, that’s never been a problem. I would give anything for one quarter of Gauff’s ruthless backhand.

Please. Coco didn’t get gifted anything. Just like in New York, she took it.
Aryna Sabalenka cries during the trophy ceremony after her French Open final defeat. PHOTO: LOIC BARATOUX/ZUMA PRESS

I like Sabalenka, a compelling star who’s shown a charming sense of humor, but she needs to learn to lose gracefully. In Saturday’s aftermath she repeatedly lamented the wind, her own “terrible” performance, argued Gauff won the match “not because she played incredible but just because I made all those mistakes,” and even argued Swiatek would have beat Gauff had she reached the final instead of Sabalenka.

Sheesh. This after Sabalenka’s racket smash following her Australian Open defeat to Madison Keys.

Navigating the hard stuff matters in sports, and even more in tennis, an individual sport where agony shares a bunk bed with joy. Sabalenka will figure it out, or she won’t.

Gauff, six years younger, appears to have figured it out. She’s bounced back from her own Roland-Garros battles—contretemps with officials at last year’s French Open and the Summer Olympics—to relocate the focus that made her a sensation. The holes in her game are smaller. She’s put in the work.

There’s always been a maturity to Gauff. Now there’s more results and a richer game, which should boost her confidence heading into Wimbledon, where 15-year-old Gauff first made noise as a professional—and another trophy she craves.

Here’s another opinion: Coco Gauff will keep getting better.

Actually, that’s just a fact.