THIRTY-NINE days on the WTA Tour with a hat-trick of prestigious titles, including the US Open, has elevated teenager Coco Gauff from a player with potential to a superstar.

When she stunned the newly-crowned world no.1 Aryna Sabalenka with a tenacious three-set success at Flushing Meadows, there were a plethora of A-listers to witness her lift her first grand slam trophy.

Yet this had seemed her destiny ever since she arrived on the professional circuit at 2019 Wimbledon, scraping her way through the qualifiers to earn a 1st round draw with the legendary Venus Williams.

The Centre Court stage beckoned for Gauff to take on one of her heroines. She instantly became a household name by fearlessly dismissing the five-time Wimbledon winner in straight sets.

Gauff’s promise as an unknown 15-year-old was there for the world to see at the All England Club. She battled her way through the main draw, only to run out of steam in her last 16 clash with ex-world no.1 Simona Halep.

Her hard-hitting style and incredible speed around the court drew immediate comparisons to the Williams sisters. Yet this was no coincidence. Gauff had been training since the age under 10 at the Mouratoglou Academy in France, run by Serena Williams’ long-term coach Patrick Mouratoglous.

Fans and former players went wild for gritty Gauff, with numerous ex-grand slam champions claiming that she would soon be winning Wimbledon and other grand slams.

With her confidence soaring to an all-time high, it was no surprise when she soon clinched her maiden WTA Tour. Gauff lifted the 2019 Linz Open trophy in Austria aged just 15 years and seven months.

Despite making an immediate impact on the WTA Tour, Gauff only collected another four titles before her US Open breakthrough. Over the years Gauff’s downfall seems to have been her eagerness to also compete at doubles as well, with her eye clearly taken off the ball as far as singles was concerned.

Her dogged determination helped her reach the coveted world no.1 spot at doubles, yet indifferent singles results — by her lofty standards — were too often caused by some wayward shots because of her daring style of play.

After losing coach Diego Moyano in April due to personal reasons, Gauff was keen to emulate her run to the 2022 clay court season. She had reached the French Open final, only to be outwitted by Iga Swiatek. She brought in Jarmere Jenkins, Serena’s former hitting partner, but back on the red clay in Paris was thwarted yet again by Swiatek in a one-sided quarter-final.

A string of patchy performances during the summer’s grass court season followed. Having reached the semi-finals at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park, the following week she was bounced out of Wimbledon in the opening round by qualifier Sofia Kenin.

Those former tennis players who had predicted that she was the next big player were starting to have serious doubts. Yet this was a natural born winner, who for years had produced explosive shots to light up most courts across the globe without netting the top prize.

A change was needed, and the burden of always being compared to the Williams sisters was not helping. Gauff’s father Corey, like Richards Williams did with his daughters, introduced tennis at an early age and took on the initial coaching mantle with the notion that an aggressive gameplan wins matches.

Gauff just wasn’t getting the same sort of results as her idols, but things were about to alter. The inspiration of adding former ATP star and coach Brad Gilbert as a temporary consultant alongside new coach Pere Riba to tackle the North American fast court season was a gamble that paid huge dividends.

Her swashbuckling style, with a formidable backhand, was back in business. She breezed to her first WTA 500 title by triumphing at the Citi Open in Washington DC.

Gauff slipped up to the familiar face of Pegula at the next tournament, bowing out in the quarter-finals at the Canadian Open. Then she turned on the style at the Cincinnati Open, raising her game to oust Swiatek for the very first time in eight attempts, and followed up that victory with a dauntless display against Karolina Muchova for her inaugural WTA 1000 tournament triumph.

With Gauff seeded no.6 ahead of a shot at the US Open crown, and among the favourites to succeed having hit a purple patch, it was actually touch and go whether she would make it past the 1st round.

She nervously wrapped up a close three-set victory over veteran Laura Siegemund, then navigated her way through the draw with some audacious attacking tactics that were often frowned upon by the more cautious-minded Gilbert.

Throughout the fortnight at Flushing Meadows the TV microphones picked up Gilbert offering his advice, more often than not he wanted her to avoid the big shots.

Despite her new-found confidence, Gauff had to play a trio of three set matches before the final. This was because she was gunning for glory by going for winners, just like the Williams sisters had over the years.

Even the final, having looked on the ropes after dropping the last four games of the opening set, went to three sets. Gauff stubbornly stuck to her guns with a series of gutsy shots that stunned Sabalenka, who made almost 50 unforced errors.

Gauff, finally crowned a major champion, became the youngest American to win the US Open ladies title since Serena achieved the feat as a 17-year-old in 1999.

She credited the Williams sisters at the post-match press conference for her victory, and admitted: “They are the reason why I have this trophy today. They have allowed me to believe in this dream growing up.

“There weren’t too many just black tennis players dominating the sport. When I was younger, it was just them that I can remember. Obviously more came because of their legacy, so it made the dream more believable.

“But all the things that they had to go through, they made it easier for someone like me to do this. You look back at the history with Indian Wells, with Serena, all she had to go through, Venus fighting for equal pay. It’s crazy and it’s an honour to be in that kind of line-up [as a US Open champion] as them.”