Coco Gauff\u2019s forehand deserted her at the worst possible time. And took her chance at another U.S. Open title with it.<\/p>\n
The American star fell to Elena Rybakina in Thursday night\u2019s semifinal in Arthur Ashe Stadium, her Kazakhstani foe coming from behind to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n
Win or lose in Saturday\u2019s final, come Monday morning, Rybakina will be the No. 1 ranked player in the world. <\/p>\n
Coco Gauff wears a dejected expression during her three-set loss to Elena Rybakina during their U.S. Open semifinals match on Sept. 10, 2026 in Arthur Ashe Stadium. JASON SZENES FOR NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
And she looked every bit the part.<\/p>\n
The 2023 U.S. Open champ, Gauff was riding an 11-match winning streak since earning the Cincinnati Open title. <\/p>\n
And after taking the first set with her trademark defense and improved serve, she looked destined for another Flushing final. That is, until her forehand going awry derailed that destiny over the last two sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I\u2019m like, it sucks. My dad came up, he was like \u2018You accomplished so many great things this summer.\u2019 I was like, I don\u2019t care about the summer,\u201d Gauff said with a rueful laugh. \u201cSo right now that\u2019s where my head is at. \u2026 I want to be a consistent player. I want to give myself as many opportunities to lift a trophy. But yeah, it hurts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe competitor in me, this is the tournament I want to perform at. I mean, I did perform, but the one that you want to come out with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff\u2019s 2023 win here was the last time anybody has beaten Arya Sabalenka here in Flushing. <\/p>\n
Elena Rybakina celebrates after her three-set win Coco Gauff in their U.S. Open
semifinal match. JASON SZENES FOR NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
Now Rybakina, after knocking the big Belarusian off her World No. 1 perch, will get her shot to beat the two-time defending champ.<\/p>\n
Rybakina came in with health concerns, ankle and heel tendon injuries in the Cincinnati Open quarterfinals. <\/p>\n
But she has dropped just two sets \u2014 including the first set against Gauff \u2014 and stormed back to win.<\/p>\n
Coco Gauff hits a forehand volley during her U.S. semifinal loss to Elena Rybakina. JASON SZENES FOR NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it was a great match, and of course, a lot of people wanted Coco to win. It\u2019s normal,\u201d Rybakina said. \u201cI tried to focus on myself, tried to not listen. \u2026 I enjoyed the atmosphere, even if the crowd mostly was for Coco.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rybakina beat Sabalenka in the Australian Open final to start the year. <\/p>\n
Now they will meet again with Sabalenka trying to become the first woman to three-peat in the U.S. Open since Serena Williams from 2012-14.<\/p>\n
Elena Rybakina hits a return during her three-set win over Coco Gauff in their U.S. Open semifinal match. JASON SZENES FOR NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
Sabalenka is riding a 19-match winning streak here at Flushing Meadows after dominating American Jessica Pegula on Thursday. For her countrywoman Gauff, Thursday will be a bitter disappointment.<\/p>\n
After hiring biomechanics specialist Gavin McMillan a year ago to fix her broken first serve, she had made vast improvement and \u2014 other than 12 double faults in Tuesday\u2019s quarterfinals \u2014 came in red-hot and blitzed through the first set.<\/p>\n
Gauff\u2019s defense was forcing longer rallies and led to 18 unforced errors by Rybakina. <\/p>\n
Elena Rybakina reacts after defeating Coco Gauff in their U.S. Open semifinal match. JASON SZENES FOR NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
But with Gauff having won 12 of the 16 rallies that went five or more shots, Rybakina\u2019s coach Stefano Vukov had her come up to net more in the second set. The results were immediate.<\/p>\n
Rybakina took three straight games to go up 4-1. <\/p>\n
Gauff did settle in, break back and knot the set at 4-all. <\/p>\n
Coco Gauff reacts during her three-set loss to Elena Rybakina in their U.S.
semifinal match. JASON SZENES FOR NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s when ill-timed forehand errors cost her the set. She whacked herself on the leg in frustration, knowing she\u2019d blown a golden opportunity. It came back to bite her.<\/p>\n
Rybakina\u2019s serve carried her to a 4-3 lead, and when Gauff finally got broken \u2014 dumping a backhand into the net \u2014 it handed one of the best servers on the planet a chance to serve out the match. <\/p>\n
Gauff finally broke back, but Rybakina charged the net to set up double match point, and an unforced error on a spike sealed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo disrespect to other tournaments, but every U.S. Open is where my mind is just focused on the improvement for next year,\u201d Gauff said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The fan support] means a lot. It always sucks at the end to feel like \u2014 well, I know it\u2019s not complete disappointment, but just not be able to get the win for them,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cBut they definitely carry me through a lot of these matches here. I can feel the love all the way down to the last point.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff\u2019s forehand deserted her at the worst possible time. And took her chance at another U.S. Open…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4979,959,310,121,3232,4980],"class_list":["post-7386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-coco-gauff","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-golf","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-us-open-tennis","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117338379694170536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}