It went all the way, but Coco Gauff made an incredible comeback at the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF on Saturday, giving the American the first year-end championship title of her career.
WTA Final Riyadh: Scores | Standings
No. 3 seed Gauff squeaked past No. 7 Zheng Qinwen of China 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) in a 3-hour, 4-minute final to take the Billie Jean King Trophy and her ninth career Hologic WTA Tour singles title. This is the longest final of the WTA Finals since time statistics were kept in 2008.
“Just staying resilient and fighting for every point,” Gauff said in her post-match press conference. “I know I was just a few points away from losing, but you know, I just tried to stay in the moment, honestly, and I’m really proud of myself.”
In her third consecutive WTA Finals appearance, Gauff had to overcome multiple deficits to earn the victory over Zheng. Gauff had to come back from a break in the second set, and she was down a break twice in the third set, where Zheng served for the match at 5-4.
Reminiscent of her run to the 2023 US Open title (where she fought back from a set down in three games), Gauff used her grit to fight back on each of those occasions.
“At the end of the game, when I fell to the ground, I didn’t think I would do that,” Gauff said. ‘I kind of promised
myself that I only save that for Grand Slams. But honestly, the way the match went, I was like, ‘I’m just tired. I just want to lie down
on the ground. ”
Gauff will be rewarded with $4,805,000 for her week in Riyadh – the largest payout at a Hologic WTA Tour event. The American is also third in the world rankings at the end of the season for the second year in a row.
Strong season endings: Gauff capped a late-season surge with a win on Saturday. After losing in the 16th round of her US Open title defense, Gauff bounced back in a big way, winning 12 of her last 14 matches this year.
Zheng also finished the season in good form. Since Wimbledon, this year’s Olympic gold medalist Zheng has posted a 31-6 win-loss record, leading the tour in match wins during that time frame.
But it was Gauff who entered the championship match with a near-impeccable record in the finals, and the American continues to excel when she reaches that stage, especially on hard courts.
By winning the Beijing title on hard court last month, Gauff became the first woman in the Open Era to win her first seven hard court finals at tour level. Gauff has now extended her final record on hard courts to 8-0, and she improves to 9-1 in tour-level finals overall.
Fast Facts: While the 20-year-old Gauff and the 22-year-old Zheng faced off in the championship match, Riyadh had the youngest combined age of the singles finalists at the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova defeated Serena Williams in the 2004 final. Gauff is now the youngest WTA Finals title list since 17-year-old Sharapova won the title twenty years ago.
Since the inception of the WTA Finals in 1972, Gauff is the fourth American to win the WTA Finals before turning 21 years old, joining Chris Evert (1972, 1973 and 1975), Tracy Austin (1980) and Serena Williams (2001).
Also this week, Gauff becomes only the second American since 1990 to claim four Top 10 wins at a single event before turning 21. Lindsay Davenport achieved that feat for the first time en route to the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics.
Key moments: Zheng took command in the first set by breaking Gauff’s love for 5-3 with heavy and deep shots. Zheng survived one break point while serving out the one-set lead: Gauff went 0-for-5 on break points in the opener.
In the second set, however, Gauff found the aggressive return game that has led her to become this year’s leader in percentage of return games won and return points. After trailing 3-1, Gauff broke Zheng three times in a row to take the second set and level the match.
In the unpredictable third set, Gauff again came back from an early break, but Zheng regained the lead and served for the match at 5-4. However, Gauff used deep hitting to draw mistakes from Zheng, and the American broke for 5-5 without ever facing match point.
Gauff collected two match points on Zheng’s serve at 6-5, but the Chinese player held firm to set up the third-set tiebreak. Gauff refused to give in and she stormed into a 6-0 lead at the breaker, eventually converting her fifth match point to seal victory in Saudi Arabia.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game, yeah,” Gauff said. “This is the second time we played. It was tough and at the beginning of the match she played a great level.”
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