Coco Gauff Riding Momentum Into U.S. Open After Winning Cincinnati

It was just last month that Coco Gauff was stunned in the first round of Wimbledon and her future was surrounded by doubt.

There have been high expectations for Gauff, 19, ever since she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon as a 15-year-old, stunning the legend Venus Williams along the way.

Gauff did reach the French Open final in 2022, but she scored the biggest victory of her young career on Sunday when she won her first WTA 1000 title by beating Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-4 in the Western & Southern Open final in a battle of the last two Roland Garros runners-up.

Gauff’s latest victory came one day after she beat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the reigning U.S. Open and French Open champion, for the first time after losing their first seven encounters.

“This is unbelievable, especially after everything I went through earlier in the summer,” Gauff said on court Sunday. “I’m just happy to be here in this moment.

“It’s been a lot of nights crying alone trying to figure it out and I still have a lot to figure out but I thank [God] for covering me.”

Gauff is now 11-1 since losing to Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon and then adding Brad Gilbert to her coaching team. Gilbert coached Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi and has encouraged Gauff to be more aggressive on her returns and with her serve.

Since Wimbledon, she has now won titles in Washington and Cincinnati while reaching the quarterfinals in Montreal.

Gauff will be the No. 6 seed at the U.S. Open beginning Aug. 28 and will be the hottest player in the women’s field.

“Now she goes into the last major of the year with the belief that she can become a Grand Slam champion,” Lindsay Davenport said on Tennis Channel.

Both Gauff and Muchova needed three sets to win their semifinals on Saturday, with Gauff staving off Swiatek after losing their first seven meetings and Muchova going the distance to beat world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion.

“When I woke up this morning, first thing was like, ‘Ouch,’” Muchova joked. “I knew it’s going to be a very tough task today to win, especially someone like Coco so I would like to congratulate you, to your team as well.

“You have some incredible run this weeks, and this year, and more important your team is very strong so congratulations for that.”