Sept. 11 (UPI) — American Coco Gauff stated she was damage by her U.S. Open semifinal loss to Elena Rybakina n Flushing, N.Y., however vowed to return again stronger.
Gauff took the primary set earlier than dropping the ultimate two within the semifinals Thursday with Rybakina, who will rise to the highest spot within the WTA Tour singles rankings Monday.
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“Gave it my all,” Gauff wrote Friday on social media. “New York, thanks. It hurts, however I will be again.”
Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, edged Gauff 5-4 in aces, 4-3 in break level conversions and 22-20 in winners within the 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory Thursday at Arthur Ashe Stadium. With the win, she clinched a finale assembly with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who is about to fall to No. 2 in Monday’s rankings replace.
Gauff, who gained the U.S. Open in 2023, misplaced within the fourth spherical in 2024 and 2025. She reached a minimum of the quarterfinals in 5 of her final eight Grand Slam appearances, together with her triumph on the 2025 French Open.
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Coco Gauff reacts after dropping a degree to to Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan within the second set of a girls’s singles semifinal on the 2026 U.S. Open on Thursday in Flushing, N.Y. Photograph by John Angelillo/UPI
“It is the purpose,” Gauff advised reporters at her post-match information convention. “I need to be a constant participant. I would like to have the ability to give myself as many alternatives to raise the trophy.
“However yeah, it hurts. It is all nice, however the competitor in me [says] that is the event [where] I need to come out with the win. It is undoubtedly a studying expertise, and I hope to proceed to maintain placing myself into positions to hopefully win.”
Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan celebrates after incomes match level towards Coco Gauff in a 2026 U.S. Open girls’s singles semifinal Thursday in Flushing, N.Y. Photograph by John Angelillo/UPI
Gauff, 22, is 45-14 thus far in 2026, with a 16-4 mark in Grand Slams. These 16 wins had been tied for her most at Grand Slams in a single 12 months. She additionally went 16-4 in 2024, with semifinal appearances within the Australian Open and French Open.
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Gauff is 1-2 in finals thus far in 2026, with a victory within the Cincinnati Open. She is now 1-2 towards Rybakina, with every of these losses occurring this summer season.
Coco Gauff serves to Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in a 2026 U.S. Open girls’s singles semifinal Thursday in Flushing, N.Y. Photograph by John Angelillo/UPI
The American expressed optimism early on the U.S. Open about her retooled serve and cleaner sport. She is usually undone by double faults and errors, however totaled simply 4 Thursday, her second-lowest complete for a three-set match since Might.
Whereas Gauff nonetheless stays the WTA chief with 302 double faults this season, she is averaging one fewer per match in 2026 in comparison with 2025. Her 5.3 per match this 12 months in Flushing had been her second fewest ever on the U.S. Open, trailing solely the three.7 per match she logged throughout her 2023 title run.
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Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan celebrates after profitable a degree towards Coco Gauff in a 2026 U.S. Open girls’s singles semifinal Thursday in Flushing, N.Y. Photograph by John Angelillo/UPI
“I feel it is confidence to proceed to enhance,” Gauff stated. “I am wanting on the different semifinalists. They’re older than me, like three, 4 years older than me. I am simply making an attempt to think about how a lot work I put right into a 12 months, how far I’ve come.
“Now I am simply excited to maintain placing within the work for an additional 12 months, one other two years, and see the place I am at at 24, 25 and see the place my sport can take me and hopefully might be on the profitable finish of matches like this.”
Earlier Thursday, Sabalenka superior with a straight-sets victory over No. 3 Jessica Pegula. The Belarusian, who’s preventing for a 3rd consecutive U.S. Open crown, wanted simply 80 minutes to dispatch her American foe. She topped Pegula 7-4 in aces, 3-0 in break level conversions and 29-12 in winners.
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Sabalenka and Rybakina will meet within the girls’s singles last at 4 p.m. EDT Saturday on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle. The assembly will air on ESPN.
No. 2 Alexander Zverev of Germany will tackle No. 50 Karen Khachanov of Russia within the first males’s singles semifinal at 3 p.m. Friday in Flushing. Individuals Ben Shelton (No. 9) and Frances Tiafoe (No. 12) will meet within the second semifinal after that match.
Shelton is on observe to rise to No. 4 within the ATP singles rankings because of his U.S. Open run. Tiafoe is about to climb to No. 8, however might rise to as excessive as No. 4 if he wins the event. The boys’s semifinals additionally will air on ESPN. The finale will air at 2 p.m. Sunday on ABC.