Coco Gauff of the U.S. kisses her trophy after winning against China’s Qinwen Zheng in their women’s singles final match of the WTA finals at the King Saud University Indoor Arena, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP)
With her 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6-2) win over Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen of China in the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday night, 20-year-old American Coco Gauff became the youngest player since Maria Sharapova won the event in 2004 to win the title. While Sharapova had won the WTA Finals title in 2004 with a win over Serena Williams, Gauff won the Billie-Jean King Trophy with a second career win over Zheng.
Gauff, who was born in 2004, the same year Sharapova had won the title, pocketed 4.8 million dollars of prize money for the title win. The feat also made her the first American to win the WTA Finals with the last American women player to achieve the feat being Serena Williams in 2004. “This means a lot to me,” Gauff said post her win. She had earlier defeated Zheng in Rome earlier this year and the 20-year-old had also scored wins over world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final and world number two Iga Swiatek en route to the semi-final.
Earlier, she had become the youngest player to reach the WTA Finals since Caroline Wozniacki since 2010 with a 7-6 (4),6-3 win over Sabalenka in the semi-finals. 22-year-old Zheng too made history as she became the youngest player to reach the WTA Finals on debut since Petra Kvitova achieved the feat in 2011.
With the WTA Finals being held in Saudi Arabia and the country attracting plenty of criticism due to alleged human rights allegations in the country, Gauff had shared last week about holding talks with the country’s leaders over the issue. “We spoke with a lot of women here in Saudi. Multiple calls with her, how the best approach would be to enter into this different place that women have never kind of, women from the US, have never kind of been in. I think for me it was important, and it was one of the questions I brought up because about LGBTQ issues, women’s rights issues, how we can help with that,” Gauff had told reporters last week.
With her first WTA Finals win on Saturday night, Gauff also termed the event as something to be etched in history. “This is the first professional women’s tennis event here in Saudi Arabia and I’ll forever be etched in history in that standard.” said Gauff after the final.
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