*Coco Gauff, the world No. 10 women’s singles player, made history at in the women’s US Open final on Saturday when she defeated 2nd-ranked Aryna Sabalenka at the iconic Arthur Ashe Stadium.
We reported previously via CNN that the win is Gauff’s first career Grand Slam, making her the first American teenager to win the US Open since 23-time major champion Serena Williams took the title in 1999.
Gauff, 19, admitted in the post-match press conference that she reads online criticism of her performance. She even revealed plans to hop on X (formerly Twitter) to see what the haters had to say about her Grand Slam win.
“I don’t know I just felt like you know people are like oh she’s hit her peak and she’s done and that it was all hype. I see the comments. People think I don’t see. I see them. I am very aware of tennis Twitter. I know y’alls usernames. So, I know who’s talking trash and I can’t wait to look on Twitter right now,” Gauff told reporters on September 9, sportskeeda.com reports.
Many Twitter users reacted to the post-game interview and slammed Gauff giving attention to her critics.
Coco Gauff has a message to Tennis Twitter:
“I felt like people were like ‘it was all hype.’ I see the comments. People think I don’t see, but I’m very aware of Tennis Twitter. I know y’all’s usernames. I know who’s talking trash. I can’t wait to look on Twitter right now.” ???? pic.twitter.com/RH6SR05PQv
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) September 10, 2023
“Coco has a lot to learn. People are entitled to their opinions of her. Does she have to agree with them of course not. Acting like an arrogant brat is not the way to handle them either. You just ignore them and keep doing what you were doing before. I never thought I’d see Coco do that,” a fan posted, per sportskeeda.com.
“She’s not the first to feel this way, but to have 23,000 people in person, multiple Presidents, various sports icons, Tier A celebrities, all going nuts for you on the day you basically became a Hall of Famer and still be focused on a few scattered Twitter accounts…whew,” another fan commented.
Coco Gauff on what she’d tell her younger self after winning the 2023 US Open: pic.twitter.com/9uG1c9PnAH
— Meredith Cash (@mercash22) September 10, 2023
Gauf said she called her boyfriend the night before her US Open final to help ease her nerves.
At the 2022 French Open, Gauff lost to world No. 1 Iga Świątek of Poland. In the interview with reporters on Saturday, she explained that her focus on holding that trophy the night before the event distracted her from winning the match.
“Honestly, I didn’t have any of those visions [of winning] till last night,” Gauff said, People reports. “You know, I thought about it, but I told myself to get it out of my head, because that’s what I did at French. I was envisioning, you know, what would happen if I would win. I think I wanted it too much.”
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