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Coco Gauff’s confidence helped her add another Grand Slam title

AP photo by Thomas Padilla / Coco Gauff takes a selfie while holding her French Open women's singles trophy Saturday at Place de la Concorde in Paris.
AP photo by Thomas Padilla / Coco Gauff takes a selfie while holding her French Open women's singles trophy Saturday at Place de la Concorde in Paris. AP photo by Thomas Padilla / Coco Gauff takes a selfie while holding her French Open women's singles trophy Saturday at Place de la Concorde in Paris.

By JEROME PUGMIRE / The Associated Press 4 min read

PARIS — A little bit of self-persuasion went a very long way for Coco Gauff, whose victory Saturday at the French Open gave the 21-year-old American a trophy she has long coveted and a second Grand Slam singles title.

Gauff defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 to add to her U.S. Open title two years ago.

Sabalenka had been the more in-form player heading into the final, and Gauff felt she needed some extra motivation.

So she drew inspiration from track star Gabby Thomas, a fellow American who became the Olympic women’s 200-meter dash champion at last year’s Paris Olympics. Thomas had kept writing down that she would be the Olympic champion in her Notes app, so Gauff tried adopting the same approach and grabbed a piece of paper.

“I wrote, ‘I will be French Open champion 2025’ like a bunch of times,” Gauff explained. “She (Thomas) wrote ‘I will be the Olympic champion,’ and she ended up winning the gold. I think it’s a great mindset that she had.”