Coco Gauff enjoyed the perfect US Open preparation by winning her first WTA Tour title of the 2026 season at the Cincinnati Open.

Gauff defeated Jessica Pegula in the final to claim the title, in a tournament which also saw her defeat Sara Bejlek, Marta Kostyuk, and Marie Bouzkova.

It marks the second time Gauff has won the Cincinnati Open, after she claimed the title for the first time in her career during the 2023 season.

With the victory, Gauff has firmly placed herself as one of the favourites to win the US Open, and for very good reason.

The player who wins the Cincinnati Open has enjoyed a very good campaign at Flushing Meadows afterwards, so Gauff should be confident she can win the title.

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Last year, Iga Swiatek won the Cincinnati Open and then went on to reach the quarter finals of the Grand Slam, before losing to eventual finalist Amanda Anisimova.

Aryna Sabalenka completed the Cincinnati Open-US Open double in 2024 and that followed Gauff earning the same achievement in the 2023 season.

Gauff has experience of winning both tournaments in the same season, which only solidifies her position as a frontrunner at the New York event.

In 2022, Carolina Garcia won the Cincinnati Open and then reached the semi finals of the US Open, which marked her best-ever performance at a Grand Slam in her entire career.

The only player to disappoint after winning the Cincinnati Open in the last five years is Ash Barty, who won the Masters event in 2021, before crashing out of the third round of the Grand Slam two weeks later.

Barty was stunned by Shelby Rogers in a year of upsets at the 2021 US Open, which eventually saw Emma Raducanu defeat Leylah Fernandez in the final to win the tournament as a qualifier.

As for Gauff, she is downplaying her chances of winning the US Open straight after claiming the second Cincinnati Open title of her career.

“I don’t think that this is an indicator that I’m going to do well in New York or anything like that,” she said in her post-match press conference after the Cincinnati Open final.

“I don’t really take that into consideration. But knowing the quality wins that I had (in Cincinnati), knowing that I’m able to figure it out even if I’m not playing my best.

“Also knowing that I can play the great tennis I felt I was playing this week and learning to be more aggressive in these points. Hopefully I can use the experience here in New York.”

Gauff has a strange record at the US Open, despite winning the title back in 2023.

In her seven main draw appearances at Flushing Meadows, Gauff has been knocked out in the third round of earlier on three occasions.

In the past two seasons, she has been knocked out at the fourth round stage of her home Grand Slam.