Down a set and trailing in both the second and third sets, World No. 3 Coco Gauff pulled off a memorable 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory over No. 7 Zheng Qinwen of China in the WTA Finals championship match on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In the first year-ending championship of her career, Gauff captured the Billie Jean King Trophy and the $4,805,000 check — the largest in the history of women’s professional tennis.
“Just staying resilient, fighting for every point,” Gauff said in her post-match press conference. “I know I was like a couple points away from losing, but, you know, I just tried to stay in the moment, honestly, and I’m really proud of myself.”
Gauff secured her ninth career Hologic WTA Tour singles title in a 3-hour, 4-minute match, the longest final in the WTA Finals since 2008, when time statistics began to be tracked.
Gauff, 20, is the youngest player in the title match of the WTA Finals since 2010 (Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki) and is the youngest women’s player to win the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova of Russia at age 17 in 2004.
Down a break in the second set, Gauff came back to win that set, breaking Zheng while leading 5-4 to even the match at one set apiece.
In the decisive third set, Gauff managed to rally from a 5-4 deficit in the third set when Zheng was serving for the match. After forcing a tiebreaker, Gauff broke Zheng three times before closing out the impressive victory.
“At the end of the match, when I, like, fell on the floor, I didn’t think I was going to do that,” said Gauff, who for the second straight season will end the year as the No. 3 player in the world.
“I kind of, like, made a promise to myself that I will only save that for Grand Slams. But honestly, to the way the match went, I was like, ‘I’m just tired. I just want to lay on the ground.'”
Zheng managed two more winners than Gauff (23-21) but committed 64 unforced errors to 44 for her American opponent. Both excelled in saving break points, with Gauff saving 7 of 12 and Zheng saving 9 of 14. Gauff had the edge in first-serve point percentage, 70 percent to 63 percent, which played a role in her emerging victorious.
–Field Level Media
