Final: Coco Gauff vs. Aryna Sabalenka
Arthur Ashe Stadium — 4 P.M. Start
- It all comes down to this: Two of the WTA's Top 10 stars will square off in Saturday's women's singles final, with the winner assured of hoisting the US Open trophy for the first time. Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, is bidding to win a second major in 2023, while Gauff is hoping to have a long-awaited crowning moment at the young age of 19.
- Gauff leads the overall head-to-head against Sabalenka 3-2, but lost their only meeting this year in the Indian Wells quarterfinals 6-4, 6-0. It's a match that Sabalenka said won't play too big of a role in the final. "She improved a lot. So it's a different player," Sabalenka said. "Going into this final, I think I just have to focus on myself and prepare myself for another fight. No matter what, just keep fighting and keep playing my best and do my best. ... What else can you do? You just have to be there and you have to fight for it."
- Gauff is the fifth American teenager to make the US Open final (Serena Williams in 1999 and 2001, Venus Williams in 1997, Tracy Austin 1979 & 1981 and Pam Shriver in 1978) and hopes to be the 10th teenage winner in Queens all-time. She would be the 12th teen champion, as Tracy Austin and Monica Seles both won two US Open titles as teens.
- Sabalenka, who will rise to world No. 1 in the WTA rankings on Monday, is also bidding to become the eighth women in the Open Era to win the Australian Open and US Open in the same year, and the first since Angelique Kerber in 2016. To date, Kerber is the only woman since 2000 to record the achievement. In addition to Sabalenka and Kerber, Victoria Azarenka (2012-13), Justine Henin (2006) and Lindsay Davenport (2000) are the other woman to have reached the Australian Open and US Open finals in the same year.
- Gauff has beaten Sabalenka on hard courts before, most notably in an epic last summer in Toronto: 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4). "She can hit winners from all areas of the court," Gauff said of Sabalenka. "So I think for me it's going to be focusing on my side of the court and trying my best to be aggressive when I can."
