Coco Gauff secured glory on the WTA Finals with a surprising comeback victory in opposition to Zheng Qinwen in an epic three-hour championship match.
The American star dropped the primary set earlier than bouncing again in fashion with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) win on the season-ending event in Saudi Arabia.
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Gauff has been in tremendous type in latest weeks, and her first WTA Finals title is the proper finish to a yr that noticed her cut up with former coach Brad Gilbert and rent Matt Daly in his place.
The change sparked prompt success, with a win on the China Open in October, which was her second title of the yr.
She arrived in Saudi Arabia with newfound confidence, and set quite a lot of information because the event unfolded.
Throughout a formidable WTA Finals run, Gauff upset World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka within the final 4, in addition to Iga Swiatek – ranked second on the earth – through the group stage.
She turned the youngest participant to make the championship match since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010, and the youngest to beat a No. 1 ranked star since Sharapova defeated Lindsay Davenport in 2004.
Gauff capped the event with an epic win in opposition to Zheng in a championship match that secured her first WTA Finals title in her third look.
Zheng took the primary set in what was a good battle, however the American bounced again within the second to ship the ultimate to a 3rd set.
Each gamers exchanged breaks within the decider, with momentum swinging all through.
Unsurprisingly, it went proper right down to the wire.
After breaking Zheng to tug it again to 5-5 – having been two factors from defeat – Gauff held her subsequent service recreation to take the benefit.
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However the Olympic champion battled again from two championship factors to make it 6-6, sending the ultimate to a tie-break.
With every thing on the road, Gauff was in a position to dig deeper than she has ever achieved earlier than to take a 6-0 lead.
And she or he by no means appeared again, closing out the tie-break 7-2 because the match entered its fourth hour to safe a surprising victory.
Not solely did Gauff take the title with a win over Zheng, however she walked away with a report quantity of prize cash too.
The younger star will take residence a large $4,805,000 after successful the championship – the biggest cheque within the historical past of ladies’s skilled tennis.
By making the ultimate after going 2-1 in round-robin play, each gamers had already earned $2,305,000 every in prize cash.
Champion Gauff then added an extra $2.5m together with her hard-fought win over the Olympic champion, bringing her complete take to $4.8m.
“It was an excellent match, I used to be simply making an attempt my finest to hold in there and by no means quit,” Gauff stated, as she walked off the court docket a newly-crowned champion.