Coco Gauff Overcomes Rough Start and Nails a Straight-Set Win to Defend US Open Title

Coco Gauff Overcomes Rough Start and Nails a Straight-Set Win to Defend US Open

Coco Gauff is headed to a possible U.S. Open title on Monday with a straight-sets victory — 6-2, 6-0 — over France’s Varvara Gracheva in the tournament’s first round. 

Gauff dropped just two games in her opening win (Seth Wenig/AP) (AP)

The 20-year-old tennis star earned her Grand Slam title last year and will face Germany’s Tatjana Maria in Round 2.

“If you defend something that means you won something, and if you did it that means you can do it again,” Gauff said in her on-court interview, according to the New York Post. “Whether I do it again this year or not, I am gonna do it again.”

Gauff is fresh off appearing as one of the Olympic flag bearers for Team USA along with LeBron James.

Hopes For Improvement!

The star also shared that she hopes to continue to improve as the tournament continues. 

“The last couple weeks were tough, and I was like, ‘I have to do this, I have to do that,’ ” Gauff said. “But I don’t have to prove anything to anyone except myself. So [these] two weeks are just about proving all the expectations that I have on myself. I think just learning and just realizing that I have a lot left to give this game.

“Whether it’s going to happen this year or in the future of many more years coming back here — and I’m not going to win every year. I think just [having] that perspective and just having the belief that I can, but not the expectation that I should.”