Riyadh: Coco Gauff made a brilliant comeback and defeated China’s Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) to win the WTA Finals title. This is the first year-end championship title of her career.
With this victory in Riyadh, Gauff will get a prize of US $ 48,05,000, which is the biggest prize of the WTA Tour event. With this, the American player has achieved the world number 3 ranking at the end of the season for the second consecutive year.
Playing in the WTA Finals for the third time, Gauff had to face many difficulties. She was trailing in the second set, and was also a break down twice in the third set, where Zheng was close to winning the match at 5-4. But Gauff fought at every opportunity and overcame the obstacles and won the 9th WTA Tour singles title of her career.
Since the WTA Finals began in 1972, Gauff has become the fourth American player to win the tournament under the age of 21. Earlier, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin and Serena Williams had achieved this feat.
In addition, Gauff is the first American since 1990 to beat four top-10 players in the same tournament. Earlier, Lindsay Davenport had done this feat in the 1996 Olympics. Gauff ended the year on a high with a win in Riyadh. After losing at the US Open, she finished the year by winning 12 of her last 14 matches. Zheng also had a great season. Since Wimbledon, this year’s Olympic gold medalist Zheng has a win-loss record of 31-6.
