Coco Gauff of america kisses the Billie Jean King Trophy after her three-set victory in opposition to Qinwen Zheng of China of their Girls’s Singles Closing 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.
| Picture Credit score: Getty Photos
Coco Gauff received the WTA Finals for the primary time by rallying to beat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) within the closing on Saturday (November 9, 2024).
The 20-year-old American got here from 2-0 and 5-3 down within the closing set and was two factors from defeat at one stage.
But she took the set to a tiebreaker and received 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 obtained $4.8 million in prize cash. She is also the youngest participant to win it since Maria Sharapova in 2004, the 12 months Gauff was born.
Gauff beat the world’s prime 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 as we speak, I acquired feedback about how I used to be going to lose badly, so I used to be similar 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 take advantage of it as motivation.”
Zheng was trying to full a season through which she reached a grand slam closing for the primary time on the Australian Open and delivered China’s first Olympic tennis singles gold medal.
“The match as we speak, it’s simply a few vital factors,” Zheng mentioned. “The match was very shut.”
Gauff edged the three-hour closing which included 26 break factors. Gauff additionally received their solely earlier assembly, within the Rome quarterfinals on clay in Might.
Gauff beat Sabalenka at age 19 in final 12 months’s U.S. Open closing to win her solely main in singles so far. She teamed with Katerina Siniakova to win the French Open doubles this 12 months.
Within the WTA doubles closing, Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand beat Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of america 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
