Aryna Sabalenka had earlier stunned the New York crowd to race through the first set 6-2 in 40 minutes.

However Gauff has now tied the match up after taking the second set 6-3.

Gauff has an entire country on her shoulders and the 19-year-old is hoping to become the first American teenager since Serena Williams in 1999 to win the crown in New York.

Sabalenka, meanwhile, is hoping to become just the eighth woman in the Open era to win the US Open and Aussie Open in the same year.

7.45am – Sabalenka ‘self destructed’

Coco Gauff has fought her way back into the match and has brought the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd to its feet after taking the second set 6-3.

Gauff was finally able to get control of her forehand and it came at the same time as errors again crept into Sabalenka’s game.

Sabalenka appeared to be red-lining her shots with plenty of groundstrokes landing just outside the lines.

Aussie great Todd Woodbridge said on Channel 9: “She’s self destructed a little bit”.

Jelena Dokic also said Sabalenka had shot herself in the foot by playing so aggressively.

“She might have got a bit too ahead of herself,” she said.

“She was doing enough. You don’t need to do any more than that.”

7am – New York crowd’s savage response

The New York crowd was roaring every time Aryna Sabalenka committed an error in the first set, but they couldn’t stop her.

After breaking Gauff’s serve to start the match, the Belarusian star coughed up a break of serve after a string of ugly unforced errors appearing to be irked by the hostile crowd cheering for her opponent.

When she served two double faults in the service game the crowd erupted in cheers.

Both players appeared overawed by the occasion but it was a fired up Sabalenka that eventually composed herself.

There was one point in the service game where Gauff refused to give up and chased down three power spikes from Sabalenka before a fourth smash at the net finally ended the point.

Sabalenka waved her hands in a gesture to the crowd, but Aussie commentator Todd Woodbridge had to tell her that the cheers weren’t for her.

“Sabalenka can rev the crowd up but their not cheering for the put-away they’re cheering for the running that Coco did,” he said.

6am – Gauff carrying an entire nation

Serena Williams may be one year into her retirement but American teenager Coco Gauff will be proudly carrying the tennis icon’s legacy when she takes on Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open final on Saturday.

Twelve months after Williams signed off from a 27-year professional career that yielded 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the 19-year-old Gauff is on the threshold of winning her first major championship.

During her march to Saturday’s final, Gauff has parried away suggestions that she is the “new Serena Williams”, making it clear that her idol’s achievements may never be matched.

“Serena is Serena,” Gauff said following her semi-final victory over Karolina Muchova on Thursday. “She’s the GOAT (Greatest of all time). I’d hope to do half of what she did.” But the teenager makes no secret of the fact that Williams was instrumental in inspiring her to pick up a racquet and pursue her dreams.

“I think really just the way she was able to transform a sport that’s predominantly white,” Gauff has said. “That’s something that as a little girl – and even now – meant a lot to me.

“Growing up, before I was born, there wasn’t many (Black tennis players) before Serena came along. There was not really an icon of the sport that looked like me.

“So growing up, I never thought that I was different because the No. 1 player in the world was somebody who looked like me.” Gauff, who burst into the wider world’s tennis consciousness with a memorable run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2019 when she was just 15, has quickly forged her own identity.

Despite her array of talents, though, the teenager admits to sometimes suffering from “impostor syndrome”, questioning whether she really belongs at the top table of women’s tennis.

She has grappled with those thoughts even after ticking off some notable milestones this season, which included titles in Washington and Cincinnati, and a first ever victory over world number one Iga Swiatek after defeats in their seven previous meetings.

— with AFP