Coco Gauff of the US kisses the Billie Jean King Trophy after her three-set victory towards Qinwen Zheng of China of their Ladies’s Singles Last match throughout Day 8 of the 2024 WTA Finals Riyadh as a part of the Hologic WTA Tour at King Saud College Indoor Area on November 09, 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
| Photograph Credit score: Getty Photos
Coco Gauff gained the WTA Finals for the primary time by rallying to beat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) within the last on Saturday (November 9, 2024).
The 20-year-old American got here from 2-0 and 5-3 down within the last set and was two factors from defeat at one stage.
But she took the set to a tiebreaker and gained the primary six factors. Zheng threatened a comeback however Gauff took the victory off her third match level with a forehand winner as she got here into the web.
She is the primary American to win the Finals since Serena Williams in 2014, and acquired $4.8 million in prize cash. She is also the youngest participant to win it since Maria Sharapova in 2004, the yr Gauff was born.
Gauff beat the world’s high two gamers – Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek – on her run to the ultimate on the season-ending occasion in Riyadh.
She felt vindicated after that and appeared to take a swipe at observers who wrote her off.
“I simply like to say I’m proper. Particularly at this time, I received feedback about how I used to be going to lose badly, so I used to be identical to, ‘OK, we’ll see,’” Gauff defined. “It’s actually simply liking the concept of simply proving folks unsuitable and, and letting your racket do the speaking. And so, yeah, I exploit it as motivation.”
Zheng was seeking to full a season by which she reached a grand slam last for the primary time on the Australian Open and delivered China’s first Olympic tennis singles gold medal.
“The match at this time, it’s simply a few necessary factors,” Zheng stated. “The match was very shut.”
Gauff edged the three-hour last which included 26 break factors. Gauff additionally gained their solely earlier assembly, within the Rome quarterfinals on clay in Could.
Gauff beat Sabalenka at age 19 in final yr’s U.S. Open last to win her solely main in singles so far. She teamed with Katerina Siniakova to win the French Open doubles this yr.
Within the WTA doubles last, Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand beat Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US 7-5, 6-3. They’re the primary gamers from Canada and New Zealand to win the doubles title.
Revealed – November 10, 2024 11:34 am IST
