American youngster Coco Gauff defeated Karolina Muchova in straight sets on Thursday to get to the US Open final. Gauff reached her maiden US Open final after winning by 6-4 7-5 in a semi-final that was delayed by protesters.
Gauff will compete against either Madison Keys or Aryna Sabalenka for the title race on Saturday. Later, Gauff acknowledged that the prolonged delay had been challenging, but she expressed support for the protesters and their cause.
Three protesters who were chanting “end fossil fuels” interrupted the semifinal match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova. The play was halted for about ten minutes while security tried to persuade the protesters to leave.
Gauff stated her remarks about the protest and the match delay and said: “I definitely, I believe, you know, in climate change. I think there are things we can do better. I know the tournaments are doing things to do better for the environment. Would I prefer it not to happen in my match? 100%, yeah. I’m not gonna sit here and lie.”
Gauff further added: “Obviously I don’t want it to happen when I’m winning up 6-4, 1-0, and I wanted the momentum to keep going. But hey, if that’s what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can’t really get upset at it.”
Three protesters have disrupted Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova's semifinal chanting "end fossil fuels". Play has been stopped for nearly 10 minutes, security struggling to get the final protester to leave
New York crowd not shy about voicing their thoughts #USOpen pic.twitter.com/QhL02dF2mP
— Molly McElwee (@molly_mcelwee) September 8, 2023
PICTURED: A climate protester glued his feet to the floor at the US Open after interrupting the match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova. #USOpen #USOpen2023
Photos from @jackciapciak. pic.twitter.com/XWhNKFCDZl
— EnvirosTakingLs (@EnvirosTakingLs) September 8, 2023
Gauff at the U.S. Open, ranking, and results in 2023
LWWLWWWLWW Now ranked no.6, Gauff has an overall 44-13 win-loss record in 2023. Gauff is now competing at the U.S. Open where she ousted the world no.121 Laura Siegemund 3-6 6-2 6-4, the world no.63 Mirra Andreeva 6-3 6-2, the world no.32 Elise Mertens 3-6 6-3 6-0, the world no.623 Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 3-6 6-1, the world no.21 Jelena Ostapenko 6-0 6-2 and the world no.10 Karolina Muchova 6-4 7-5.
Coco Gauff will square off with the world no.2 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Their current record is 3-2 for Gauff.
Coco conquered 3 titles in 2023 in Auckland, Washington and Cincinnati.
Coco won 5 titles in her career: 3 on hard courts, 1 on clay courts and 1 on indoor courts. (See the list of her titles)
Karolina Muchova in 2023
Now the world no.10 (career-high), Muchova played her last match on the 7th of September when she surrendered to world no.6 Cori Gauff 6-4 7-5 in the semifinal of the U.S. Open (draw).
Currently, during this season Karolina has managed to achieve an overall 38-13 match record. Karolina Muchova’s most significant result of this year was getting to the final at the French Open and Cincinnati.
Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova played each other only 2 times. Their current record is 2-0 for Gauff. The last time they squared off, Coco Gauff won 6-4 7-5 in the semifinal in New York (U.S. Open) on the 7th of September 2023.
In the following video you can watch the highlights.
Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova |
| Embed from Getty Images |
