Coco Gauff has been the US Open champion for a few days, but it's still something she's yet to digest what happened.
The US Open win didn't sneak up on Gauff because she worked her way towards that. She won a couple of matches to get to the second week and then added a few more in the second week to lift the trophy. The final was a great performance, so the trophy ended up in deserving hands.
Even so, it was something that she really needed to process, and doing so in the moment was really tough. Speaking in a recent appearance on Today Show, Gauff confirmed that she's yet to fully process what happened on Saturday.
"It’s still crazy. I don’t think it’s digested. Like even last night, I was telling myself, you’re a Grand Slam champion, and I’m like, it doesn’t feel real at all."
It felt like it hit all at once because I didn't want to tell myself it was match points on the match points. I didn't want to start shaking. So when it happened and it like finally, then it was over. So I was a little bit shocked and I couldn't breathe either.
It will come slowly to Gauff because she will take some time off after this result to let it all sink in. She already withdrew from the San Diego Open and might miss the Guadalajara event, though that hasn't been confirmed yet.
Either way, things will settle, and she'll go back to playing regular tennis and eyeing another trophy. It seems like things finally settled in her mind as to how she wants to play tennis.
"It's just crazy the amount of things that I have heard or seen about myself, but I'm really happy of how I've been able to manage it all."