In section 131 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, we were waiting for the moment to arrive right up until it did. Patience is sometimes the price of greatness and it’s rarely a price too steep. In Saturday’s U.S. Open final, the 19-year-old prodigy Coco Gauff faced down fate, failure, and fury and returned neither broken nor untouched. That’s pretty much the Holy Grail of sports drama, if ever there was one.
Gauff lagged out of the gate against second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, fumbled the opening set, and nearly dug her own tomb. Then, like any decent miracle maker, she pulled herself out. A string of spitball returns from the outer reaches of the baseline earned Gauff a break. A ground game tighter than concrete helped her keep it. At an hour and 24 minutes, she evened the score at one set a piece. Less than 45 minutes later she had both hands gripped around the champions trophy.
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