Gauff won the US Open for the first time
Gauff closed out the North American hard court season with a 12-match winning streak. The 19-year-old tennis player first won a WTA 500 tournament in Washington, then won his first WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati before winning his first Grand Slam title at the US Open.
Facing the new world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final, Gauff was somewhat overwhelmed by the Belarusian senior's strong fighting style in the first set. She lost the last four games of the set and lost 2-6. But the more he plays, the more persistent the home player becomes in defense and excels in attack. Gauff won the only match in the second set, before leading 4-0 in the deciding set.
Sabalenka shortened the score to 2-4 in the third set, but lost the next service game. The winning counterattack helped Gauff win the match-deciding point, thereby becoming the fourth American teenager to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era. The last person to do this was Serena Williams at the age of 17, at the 1999 US Open.
At the 2023 Grand Slam, Gauff lost in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and was eliminated in the first round of Wimbledon. By returning strongly in the North American hard court season, Gauff will rise to number three in the world - the highest ranking since the beginning of his career. She and Jessica Pegula will also rise to number one in the world on the women's doubles scoreboard.
Gauff emerged at Wimbledon 2019, going straight from the qualifying round to the fourth round at the age of 15. Since then, the American tennis player has been under a lot of pressure as a "prodigy" and often does not achieve good results at the Grand Slam. Before the US Open, her best performance at major tournaments was reaching the final at Roland Garros 2022.
In 2023, women's tennis witnessed four different champions at the Grand Slam. Sabalenka won the Australian Open, Iga Swiatek won Roland Garros, Marketa Vondrousova won Wimbledon and Gauff won the US Open. These four players are all in the top 10 in the world.
