Gauff is the first American player to lift the trophy since Serena Williams in 2015.
The second-ranked American dug deep to claim a 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-4 victory and her second major title after also defeating Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka battled past four-times champion Iga Swiatek to reach her first French Open final on Thursday with a 7-6(1) 4-6 6-0 victory that ended the Pole's reign in Paris and snapped her 26-game winning streak in the tournament.
The 21-year-old was the runner-up to Iga Swiatek in a one-sided showpiece match in 2022.
Reigning Madrid Open champion Iga Swiatek suffered a crushing semi-final defeat by Coco Gauff on Thursday, with the American triumphing 6-1, 6-1.
Coco Gauff said she was "disappointed but not completely crushed" after her scintillating start to the year came to an abrupt halt in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Badosa reached a Slam semi-final for the first time in her career -- the first Spanish woman to do so since Garbine Muguruza at Melbourne in 2020.
Coco Gauff wrote "RIP TikTok USA" and drew a broken heart on a camera lens shortly after reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals on Sunday after the popular app used by 170 million Americans stopped working in the United States.
The 20-year-old's exit means Serena Williams remains the last woman to successfully defend the US Open title back in 2014.
Gauff, seeded third, fired 10 aces and needed just 66 minutes to beat 66th-ranked Gracheva. She saved eight break points -- including two with aces in the final game
Gauff was not the only big name going out, as Rybakina crashed to a 3-6 7-6(3) 6-4 defeat by former US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez.
Tearful Coco Gauff was dumped out of the Olympics Games tennis tournament on Tuesday in a stormy defeat to impressive Donna Vekic of Croatia.
The world number one is just one match away from becoming the first woman to win the tournament in three straight years since Justine Henin in 2007 after a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
World number three Coco Gauff came back from a set down to defeat Ons Jabeur and reach her second French Open semi-final on Tuesday.
Gauff has been outspoken from a young age, and grew up with activism engrained in her DNA, passed on from her grandmother Yvonee Lee Odom, who desegregated her high school in Delray Beach in the early 1960s.
Formidable world number two Aryna Sabalenka blasted past Coco Gauff into the Australian Open final on Thursday to keep her title defence on track.
"Happy, really proud of the fight I showed today," said Gauff, who had never progressed beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park in four previous attempts.
Fourth seed Gauff, attempting to become the first woman to back up a US Open title with a Grand Slam win in Australia since Naomi Osaka in 2018-19, has been almost as impressive.
Fourth seed Gauff said ahead of the opening Grand Slam of the year at Melbourne Park that she wanted to win "multiple" major titles after her breakthrough at Flushing Meadows.
