With French Open title, Coco Gauff's time is now

Nine minutes into her press conference after her first major win, Coco Gauff was asked about her goals in the sport.

She didn't hesitate, or even take a pause to breathe before responding.

"I want to be the greatest," she said without any emotion in her voice. "My dad told me that I could do this when I was eight. Obviously you never believe it. I'm still, like, not 100% confident. But, like, you have to just say things. You never know what happens."

Gauff, then just 15, had just defeated one of her childhood heroes in seven-time major champion Venus Williams on Centre Court at Wimbledon. A year removed from her head-turning junior title at the French Open and just months after recording her first win on the WTA Tour, Gauff had received a wild card into Wimbledon's qualifying draw. While to the casual fan she was a virtual unknown, tennis insiders had been buzzing about her for some time.

But after her win over Williams, everyone knew who she was. "Cocomania," as it was dubbed at the time, was born, and the fervor and intrigue increased with every match she won. By the end of her magical fourth-round run at the All England Club, everyone seemed to believe just how great she could become.

Transitioning from a 15-year-old with little pressure to an overnight superstar expected to win every match was not easy. While she made steady progress and reached the 2022 French Open final, it would take Gauff four years to claim her first major title at the US Open in 2023. Five more Slam tournaments then came and went without another final appearance.

It was clear she was great, as evidenced by her 2024 WTA Finals victory and back-to-back final appearances in the 1000-level clay events leading into the French Open, but she still had a ways to go in order to one day reach her goal of becoming the greatest.

But she got closer in Paris these past two weeks. Gauff, the No. 2 seed, stormed through the draw -- dropping just one set en route to the final. She claimed the French Open title on Saturday behind a resilient comeback victory 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in two hours and 38 minutes. When it was over she fell on the clay, lying down with her hands covering her mouth in apparent disbelief. The tears streamed down her face while she waited for the trophy ceremony from her chair.

It's uncertain if Gauff, still just 21, will one day make good on her ultimate goal, the lofty, overly ambitious one she's spoken openly about since childhood that would put her in elite company reserved for other one-name superstars like Serena, Novak, Roger and Rafa. But with her triumph at Roland Garros and the beginning of what feels like her prime, she cements her spot as one of the greatest right now.

"She has so many [major titles] ahead of her," Chris Evert, the 18-time Slam champion, said on the broadcast after the match. "I mean we saw that at 15 years old. We saw when she beat Venus at Wimbledon. We thought, 'This girl's going to be winning 10, 12, 14 major titles. She's got the game and if she can stay healthy...' She just loves the game and she's going to be around for a long, long time winning majors."

Gauff's name is already mentioned among some of the sport's all-time greats. Saturday marked her 27th match win at Roland Garros -- tying her with Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario as the fourth-most in the Open Era for a woman before her 22nd birthday. Her semifinal victory broke a tie with Serena Williams for the second-most by an American woman in the same category, and Gauff trails just Evert, who won seven French Open titles.

She also became the first American to win the title at Roland Garros since Serena a decade ago. And she is just the fifth countrywoman in the Open Era to win multiple Slam titles at 21 or younger, joining Serena, Evert, Venus and Tracy Austin.

Michelle Obama and Billie Jean King were among those to congratulate her on social media immediately after the win. Spike Lee, who was in attendance and sitting courtside, was the first person she hugged in celebration.

But Gauff wasn't thinking about history or about her ever-growing fame during Saturday's match. Nor was she thinking of her previous matches against Sabalenka, or the 2023 US Open final in which she defeated her. Gauff remembered what it felt like to lose the 2022 French Open final with the trophy on the line, and she was determined to not experience that pain again.

So, after losing the one-hour-and-eighteen-minute first set in a tiebreak, Gauff knew what she had to do and showed no visible signs of frustration or agony. She refused to experience the same heartbreak at Court Philippe-Chatrier and masterfully and clinically took control. Gauff needed just 33 minutes to claim the second set and dominated with her strong serving, aggressive returns and blistering speed. But it was perhaps her resolve and poise under pressure that was the most impressive.

If you can dream it, you can do it ✍️ @cocogauff#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/cGYTZAStDc

"She's so much more mature than a 21-year-old," said former world No. 1 and 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki after the match on the broadcast.

Sabalenka, who couldn't hide her obvious disappointment after the match, praised Gauff for being a "fighter and a hard worker" during her on-court speech. For Gauff, it was three years in the making. "I just remembered, you know, that ceremony when Iga [Swiatek] won, I just remembered trying to take it all in and pay attention to every detail and just feel like I wanted that experience for myself," Gauff said on Saturday. "So when the anthem got played, I vividly remember watching her, pretty emotional when the Polish anthem got played. I was, like, 'Wow, this is such a cool moment.' So when the anthem got played today, I kind of had those reflections."

Gauff's emotional maturity and fight were on display throughout the clay season, in which she defeated multiple major champions and top-10 stars including Iga Swiatek, Emma Raducanu, Zheng Qinwen and Mirra Andreeva (twice), and during her run at Roland Garros. She needed three sets against fellow American Madison Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion, after losing the opener in a tiebreak.

In the semifinals, she needed to battle Lois Boisson, the surprise French breakout star, and an entire stadium rooting against her. She allowed Boisson, who defeated the likes of No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula and No. 6 Andreeva in Paris, to just three total games.

"She was really solid, and I couldn't play my game today because she was just too good," Boisson said on Thursday.

While Gauff remains at the No. 2 ranking, and 3,470 points behind Sabalenka, she will have opportunities to narrow that deficit throughout the summer -- starting during the upcoming grass-court season. She is next slated to play at Berlin, which gets underway next week, but was unsure on Saturday if she would remain in the draw. While Gauff has never advanced past the fourth round at Wimbledon -- she matched her debut run in 2021 and 2024 -- she will certainly look to build on her momentum at the All England Club this year.

From there, she will turn her sights to the hard-court summer series and the US Open, where all eyes will be upon her from the home crowd and the New York media. But she's proven she can handle the pressure and the expectations -- and has the game and attitude to handle all of it. Just moments after posing with the trophy in front of hundreds of photographers, Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, asked Gauff what was next.

"Hopefully another one," Gauff said. "Yeah, definitely another one. But for now, just enjoying this one and I'm just glad to get another title to my resume."

Now almost six years removed from her head-turning, auspicious introduction to the tennis world, and Gauff has the same confidence, self-belief and joyful exuberance as she did then. She remains equally committed -- if not more so -- to her desire to be great, but time has given her something perhaps even more valuable and crucial to achieving that: perspective.

When asked on Thursday after advancing to the final how she managed to not get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the situation, she again didn't hesitate.

"I think just realizing how minuscule it is," Gauff said. "Like everybody is dealing with way bigger things in life than losing a final ... I'm sure there are hundreds of players that would kill to win or lose a final, so just knowing that, makes me realize how lucky and privileged I am to be in this position.

"At first I thought it would be the end of the world if I lost, and you know, the sun still rose the next day. So knowing, regardless of the result, the sun will still rise."