Coco Gauff on Saturday became the youngest player to win the WTA Finals title in 20 years with a grueling 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) victory over Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in Riyadh.
The 20-year-old Gauff rallied back from 3-6, 1-3 down, and erased a one-break deficit twice in the decider, to overcome the seventh-seeded Zheng in three hours, four minutes — the second-longest WTA final this year.
With the trophy, Gauff pocketed a record US$4.8 million — the largest payout at a professional, sanctioned tour event.
Photo: Reuters
Gauff had knocked out the world’s top two players, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, en route to the final and picked up her fourth top-eight win of the week with an impressive physical performance against Zheng.
Zheng is just the second Asian woman, behind Li Na in 2013, to reach the singles championship match at a WTA Finals.
The Chinese star wraps up her breakthrough campaign this year having won 31 of her past 37 matches, and would today rise to a career-high world No. 5.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Contesting the youngest final at the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova’s win over Serena Williams in 2004, Gauff and Zheng, 22, brought their A-game from the start, painting the lines with precise and powerful groundstrokes off of both wings.
Gauff survived a bitterly disappointing summer, with a string of frustrating defeats, to end her year on a high note.
Her Finals win was made sweeter after a mid-year derailment when attempts to rebuild her serve led to repeated frustrations on the tour and a coaching shake-up.
“It’s been a long season,” Gauff said with the gleaming silver trophy in her hand, thanking her family and team for sticking with her through the ups and the downs.
Gauff’s year had started on the right track as she won in Auckland and reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open, but the season began to crumble with a fourth-round defeat at Wimbledon and third-round exit at the Paris Games.
She was unable to reset for her US Open title defense after shock early exits in Toronto and Cincinnati and left New York after a dreadful fourth-round defeat by Emma Navarro, when she was plagued by 19 double faults.
Gauff split from coach Brad Gilbert and flipped the script weeks later, winning her second WTA 1000 title last month at the China Open before reaching the Wuhan Open semis.
“I know [I] tend to focus on ‘doubters/haters’ but this one is really for all of my supporters! Ya’ll held it down for me win or lose!” Gauff wrote on X after clinching the title. “I know some of you are a little bit petty like me so it does feel nice to silence them for a bit.”
“Safe to say I beat the bad season allegations,” she added.
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