Coco Gauff advances to US Open final! American tennis star defeats No. 10 Karolina Muchova 6-4 7-5 after 45-minute delay over fossil fuels protests

Coco Gauff once again demonstrated her remarkable maturity by surviving a 45-minute upset at Flushing Meadows to make it to her first US Open final.

A protester glued his feet to the floor in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium, but as his removal took place, she kept her concentration to eventually score a 6-4 7-5 win that lasted over three hours over number ten seed Karolina Muchova.

“I just treated it like a rain delay,” said Gauff, who records tournament victories in Cincinnati and Washington.

“So often we stop in tennis. In Washington DC, people were passing out, even in Cincinnati, so I just treated it that way. The only thing that was more difficult was that we had to leave the court. We didn’t know. The guard said it could take five minutes, but also an hour, so we didn’t know how to warm up and prepare. I didn’t know whether to eat or not. Honestly, I just thought of it as a rain delay.’

The 19-year-old American, who needed five match points to clinch victory in front of a frenzied crowd, had to wait for the winner of the second match between compatriot Madison Keys and world number two Aryna Sabalenka.

Karolina Muchova, from the Czech Republic, reacts during a match against Coco Gauff

Protesters from a group called Extinction Rebellion interrupt Thursday’s semi-final

Speaking to ESPN, Gauff added that she had previously had a premonition that something could happen in one of her remaining matches: “The crazy thing is I told myself this morning that there would be a climate change protest in the finale.

“I told the referee it was a protest. I told Karolina and she said, “How did you know it was a protest?”

“I just had this weird feeling that something was going to happen, it happened at Wimbledon and it happened at the French Open.”

Gauff was initially frustrated by the stoppage which came in at 6-4 1-0 in the second set. Tournament director Stacey Allaster later confirmed, “As we saw, we had environmental protesters in the lodge area. There were three. Three were removed. They left quietly. When security arrived, they found one of the protesters had glued himself to the cement floor with his bare feet.”

Before that became apparent, Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert had yelled at referee Jake Garner, “This is a joke!”

Both players were sent back to the locker room when police finally unhooked the fossil fuel activist, who had two accomplices.

One man from the British group even glued his feet to the floor at Arthur Ashe Stadium

In the end, the game was decided by the more mundane statistic of Muchova committing 36 unforced errors to her opponent’s 25 in what was always a tense encounter in front of a packed meeting of over 22,000.

“Some of those points were so loud, I hope my ears are okay. I grew up watching this tournament, so it means a lot, but the job is not done yet,” said Gauff.

She had walked onto the field to a warm reception, armed with the knowledge that she had beaten the same opponent in the Cincinnati final last month.

She was much more confident for the first six games and raced away to a 5-1 lead by playing a measured and consistent game. She gave the ball plenty of air and pulled error after error from the obviously nervous Czech.

A match official speaks to Coco Gauff during the 45-minute protest delay on Thursday

New York City police officers escort a protester away after interrupting the semifinal

The hitch came when she tried to serve him out, and suddenly the American was broken twice in a row, her forehand—often the gauge of her feeling—failing completely. Fortunately for Gauff, Muchova then returned to her errant ways to virtually gift her the tenth game.

Gauff had kept her serve in the first game of the second set when the stoppage occurred, and should rediscover her momentum. It was important for her to hold serve in her first game back, which she did, but was then lobbed at break point in the next game when there was an opportunity to break for 3-1.

She then broke for 5-3 when Muchova made a double foul and missed a simple overhead. The American then became tense and failed to serve out the match on the first call. At 6-5 on serve, she forced two match points, one saved by a blinding Muchova and the next via a forehand error from the American. A third went begging through another forehand that went wide.

A fourth was saved by a serve and volley maneuver before the fifth was achieved when the Czech sent a backhand long, giving Gauff her second Grand Slam final after last year’s French Open.