COCO GAUFF USED WORDS AND A MIRROR TO WIN THE FRENCH OPEN

Eight lines on a piece of paper written by Gauff late on a night, then it was finally time for bed, time to rest. Not quite. Gauff then persuaded herself a little bit more, by staring at the mirror...

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A little bit of self-persuasion went a very long way for Coco Gauff, whose victory at the French Open gave the 21-year-old American a trophy she has long coveted, and a second major 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 Gabby Thomas, who became the women's Olympic 200-meter 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.”