Coco Gauff tops Karolina Muchova to reach the US Open final after match was delayed by climate protest
Coco Gauff never wavered. Not when a big lead in the first set evaporated.
Not when match point after match point went by the wayside. And not, most distracting of all, when her U.S.
Open semifinal against Karolina Muchova was interrupted for 50 minutes Thursday night by environmental activists — one of whom glued his bare feet to the
concrete floor in the stands.
It’s been rather obvious for quite some time that Gauff is no ordinary teenager. Now she is one win away from becoming a Grand Slam champion.
Gauff, a 19-year-old from Florida, reached her first final at Flushing
Meadows by defeating Muchova 6-4, 7-5 on what was anything but an ordinary evening.
The toughest part for Gauff might have been closing out the victory: She needed six match points to get it done, raucously supported by a loud, partisan crowd that chair umpire Alison Hughes repeatedly implored to quiet down.
After failing to convert one match point while serving for the win at 5-3, then another four in what turned out to be the last game, Gauff got the last chance she would need when she smacked a forehand winner to cap a 40-stroke exchange that was the longest of the contest. Muchova then missed a backhand to end it.
Gauff pumped her fists, waved to the fans and put a finger to her ear, as if to say she wanted to hear even more support.
“Some of those points, it was so loud, and I don’t know if my ears are going to be OK,” said Gauff, the first American teenager to make it to the title match in New York since Serena Williams in 2001.
“I grew up watching this tournament so much, so it means a lot to be in the final.
A lot to celebrate,” Gauff said. “But the job is not done, so hopefully you can back me on Saturday.”
She was up by a set and 1-0 in the
