By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Teenager&nbsp;Coco&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;mounted a fierce comeback&nbsp;to&nbsp;beat&nbsp;Belarusian second seed Aryna&nbsp;Sabalenka&nbsp;2-6 6-3 6-2 in the&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Open&nbsp;women's final on Saturday, claiming her first Grand&nbsp;Slam title&nbsp;and&nbsp;cementing her place in&nbsp;American&nbsp;tennis&nbsp;royalty.
With the&nbsp;win, sixth seed&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;became the first&nbsp;American&nbsp;to&nbsp;win&nbsp;a&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Open&nbsp;singles title since Sloane Stephens in 2017.
Gauff, 19, fed off noisy local support as she fought&nbsp;back&nbsp;in the second set&nbsp;and&nbsp;kept the momentum going until the end of the battle, before falling to the court on Arthur Ashe Stadium as she clinched the title with a&nbsp;backhand&nbsp;winner.
Sabalenka&nbsp;had a superb start but could not keep the momentum going as unforced errors piled up&nbsp;and&nbsp;she closed her 2023 Grand&nbsp;Slam run, which included an Australian&nbsp;Open&nbsp;title&nbsp;and&nbsp;semi-finals at Roland&nbsp;Garros&nbsp;and&nbsp;Wimbledon, on a disappointing note.
"It doesn't get more dramatic than that, to be honest," said&nbsp;Gauff, who lost in her only previous major final appearance last year at Roland&nbsp;Garros.
"I knew today was going to be one of those problem-solving tough matches because she's a tough opponent, so I'm obviously happy with the result."
There were early signs of nervousness from both players, as&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;made a pair of unforced errors to help&nbsp;Sabalenka&nbsp;to a break in the&nbsp;opening game,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the Belarusian dropped serve in the fourth game with two double faults&nbsp;and&nbsp;an unforced error.
The crowd urged on&nbsp;Gauff, the first&nbsp;American&nbsp;teenager&nbsp;to reach the&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Open&nbsp;singles final since Serena Williams in 2001.
But&nbsp;Sabalenka&nbsp;blocked out the noise&nbsp;and&nbsp;used her mighty forehand&nbsp;to convert on a break point chance in the fifth game. The Belarusian was helped to another break in the seventh as&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;double faulted&nbsp;and&nbsp;made two more costly forehand&nbsp;mistakes.
The 25-year-old&nbsp;Sabalenka, who will take over as world number one in the new rankings, had ended&nbsp;Gauff's run at Indian Wells earlier this year but told reporters this week she expected a &ldquo;different player&rdquo; in Saturday&rsquo;s final.
She ended up facing just that in the second set, as the&nbsp;American&nbsp;showed new resolve when she fended off a pair of break points in the first game&nbsp;and&nbsp;flipped the script.
What was once a lopsided affair turned into a battle as&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;increased her intensity, sending&nbsp;Sabalenka&nbsp;scrambling around the court in the fourth game before the Belarusian dropped her serve with a double fault.
Gauff&nbsp;produced an overhead smash to break in the&nbsp;opening game of the third set&nbsp;and&nbsp;converted another in the third game.
Sabalenka&nbsp;took a medical timeout after the fifth game, consulting a physio for an apparent issue with her left thigh, but did not appear worse off as she broke in the next game.
If&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;was rattled, however, she did not show it,&nbsp;winning a 20-shot rally before breaking&nbsp;back&nbsp;in the seventh game&nbsp;and&nbsp;soaking up the adoration of the crowd at the major she grew up watching as she clinched the title.
After offering her opponent a hug,&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;burst into tears&nbsp;and&nbsp;embraced her parents in the stands.
"The whole time I was saying to myself, 'Oh, my goodness, how is this real?'" she told reporters.
"When I sat down after hugging them&nbsp;back&nbsp;before the ceremony, it felt real in that moment, but when I was going to hug them it didn't. I almost forgot to shake the ref's hand. It was a crazy moment."
The tournament was celebrating 50 years of equal prize money at this year's edition,&nbsp;and&nbsp;pioneer Billie Jean King was on hand&nbsp;to offer&nbsp;Gauff&nbsp;the trophy.
Sabalenka&nbsp;had only dropped a single set en route to Saturday's finale&nbsp;and&nbsp;had tears in her eyes as she offered her opponent credit, chuckling as she said she wanted more finals against the&nbsp;American&nbsp;- but with "different results, hopefully."
She told reporters the tide had turned during the match as she began "overthinking" in the second set.
"Because of that I start kind of like losing my power," said&nbsp;Sabalenka&nbsp;"Then she start moving better. I start missing a lot of easy shots."
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The&nbsp;win&nbsp;delivered on years of enormous expectations hoisted upon the young&nbsp;American&nbsp;Gauff's shoulders after she became the youngest ever to qualify for the Wimbledon main draw at 15 years old.
The breakthrough at such an early age came with its pitfalls.
"People were putting a lot of pressure on me to&nbsp;win. I felt that at 15 I had to&nbsp;win&nbsp;a slam at 15," said&nbsp;Gauff.
"I felt like I had a time limit on when I should&nbsp;win&nbsp;one,&nbsp;and&nbsp;if I won one after a certain age it wouldn't be an achievement.
"Yeah, 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."
She found a new gear this summer, producing the best&nbsp;tennis&nbsp;of her career as she picked up a&nbsp;win&nbsp;in Washington&nbsp;and&nbsp;secured her first WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati, before embarking on a tremendous run through Flushing Meadows.
"A month ago I won a 500 title&nbsp;and&nbsp;people said I would stop at that. Two weeks ago I won a 1000 title&nbsp;and&nbsp;people were saying that was the biggest it was gonna get," said&nbsp;Gauff.
"So three weeks later I am here with this trophy right now... To those who thought they were putting water on my fire you were really adding gas to it&nbsp;and&nbsp;now I am burning so bright."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery, additional reporting by Steve Keating in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue, Ken Ferris, Daniel Wallis&nbsp;and&nbsp;William Mallard)

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Tennis-American teenager Gauff fights back to beat Sabalenka and win U.S. Open