Coco Gauff’s US Open run comes to crashing end in semifinal loss to Elena Rybakina

Coco Gauff’s forehand deserted her at the worst possible time. And took her chance at another U.S. Open title with it.

The American star fell to Elena Rybakina in Thursday night’s semifinal in Arthur Ashe Stadium, her Kazakhstani foe coming from behind to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Win or lose in Saturday’s final, come Monday morning, Rybakina will be the No. 1 ranked player in the world.

And she looked every bit the part.

The 2023 U.S. Open champ, Gauff was riding an 11-match winning streak since earning the Cincinnati Open title.

And after taking the first set with her trademark defense and improved serve, she looked destined for another Flushing final. That is, until her forehand going awry derailed that destiny over the last two sets.

“Right now I’m like, it sucks. My dad came up, he was like ‘You accomplished so many great things this summer.’ I was like, I don’t care about the summer,” Gauff said with a rueful laugh. “So right now that’s where my head is at. … I want to be a consistent player. I want to give myself as many opportunities to lift a trophy. But yeah, it hurts.

“The competitor in me, this is the tournament I want to perform at. I mean, I did perform, but the one that you want to come out with a win.”

Gauff’s 2023 win here was the last time anybody has beaten Arya Sabalenka here in Flushing.

Now Rybakina, after knocking the big Belarusian off her World No. 1 perch, will get her shot to beat the two-time defending champ.

Rybakina came in with health concerns, ankle and heel tendon injuries in the Cincinnati Open quarterfinals.

But she has dropped just two sets — including the first set against Gauff — and stormed back to win.

“I feel like it was a great match, and of course, a lot of people wanted Coco to win. It’s normal,” Rybakina said. “I tried to focus on myself, tried to not listen. … I enjoyed the atmosphere, even if the crowd mostly was for Coco.”

Rybakina beat Sabalenka in the Australian Open final to start the year.

Now they will meet again with Sabalenka trying to become the first woman to three-peat in the U.S. Open since Serena Williams from 2012-14.

Sabalenka is riding a 19-match winning streak here at Flushing Meadows after dominating American Jessica Pegula on Thursday. For her countrywoman Gauff, Thursday will be a bitter disappointment.

After hiring biomechanics specialist Gavin McMillan a year ago to fix her broken first serve, she had made vast improvement and — other than 12 double faults in Tuesday’s quarterfinals — came in red-hot and blitzed through the first set.

Gauff’s defense was forcing longer rallies and led to 18 unforced errors by Rybakina.

But with Gauff having won 12 of the 16 rallies that went five or more shots, Rybakina’s coach Stefano Vukov had her come up to net more in the second set. The results were immediate.

Rybakina took three straight games to go up 4-1.

Gauff did settle in, break back and knot the set at 4-all.

But that’s when ill-timed forehand errors cost her the set. She whacked herself on the leg in frustration, knowing she’d blown a golden opportunity. It came back to bite her.

Rybakina’s serve carried her to a 4-3 lead, and when Gauff finally got broken — dumping a backhand into the net — it handed one of the best servers on the planet a chance to serve out the match.

Gauff finally broke back, but Rybakina charged the net to set up double match point, and an unforced error on a spike sealed it.

“No disrespect to other tournaments, but every U.S. Open is where my mind is just focused on the improvement for next year,” Gauff said.

“[The fan support] means a lot. It always sucks at the end to feel like — well, I know it’s not complete disappointment, but just not be able to get the win for them,” Gauff said. “But they definitely carry me through a lot of these matches here. I can feel the love all the way down to the last point.”