Barely 20 years old, Coco Gauff She is already the absolute queen of tennis. She achieved that status after being champion of the WTA Finals 2024a tournament in which only the eight best players of the entire season participate.
Representing the USAGauff defeated Zheng Qinwen, representing China, with a three-set comeback. She started losing 3-6 and then shook off 6-4, 7-6(2) in the longest battle in the history of the WTA Finals (three hours and four minutes).
Cori, better known as Coco, arrived at the 2024 WTA Finals as the third best seed, behind Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatekwho have been alternating at the top of the world ranking for the last two years.
But the American surpassed both the Belarusian and the Polish to reach the last fight for the title: in the group stage she defeated Swiatek 6-3, 6-4 and in the semifinals she eliminated Sabalenka 7-6 ( 4), 6-3.
By beating Qinwen in the final, Gauff became the youngest champion of the WTA Finals after two decades. The most recent precedent had been the Russian Maria Sharapova, who won the 2004 edition at the age of 17.
The Finals were the only pending account for Coco Gauff inside the WTA Tour. His first title was in 2019 within the 250 category, the lowest, but in 2023 he unleashed his potential by winning consecutively at the 500 (Washington), 1000 (Cincinnati) and Grand Slam (US Open) level.
In fact, 2023 was the most productive season of his career, winning four titles (in addition to Auckland’s 250). In 2024 she struggled, but reached three finals and won them all: the WTA 250 in Auckland in January, the 1000 in China in October and the Saudi Arabia Finals in November, achieving the highest financial prize in history with $4,805,000.
“I don’t know what I’ll do with that prize, it’s a lot of money. I hope to be one of the highest-paid tennis players or athletes this year, it would be exciting,” mentioned the young champion, born on March 13, 2004 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Coco Gauff debuted on the WTA Tour in 2019 and quickly showed her champion lineage, winning her first title in October of that year in Austria. In 2022 she reached her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros, although she lost to Iga Swiatek and in 2024 she won the so-called fifth major, the WTA Finalsin addition to confirming itself in third place in the world ranking for the second consecutive season.
However, she says she is not obsessed with reaching number 1 in the world in the short term: “Yes and no. I have never been a ranking-focused person.I just want to (win) Grand Slams, although yes, I know I have that possibility. Honestly, I don’t think about number 1.”
The record for the youngest champion in the history of the WTA Finals continues to be held by Monica Seles, who won the 1990 edition at 16 years and 11 months. However, Coco Gauff paves the way for a career of many trophies at her young age.
On the other hand, it gave the United States its 21st title in the history of the WTA Finals (only in the singles branch), a figure distributed among seven players: Martina Navratilova, Serena WilliamsChris Evert, Tracy Austin, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and now Coco Gauff.
The WTA Finals completed its first of three contract editions in Saudi Arabiaa country that is in the eye of the hurricane for its human rights violations, particularly against women and the LGBT community.
The tournament champion, Coco Gauff, spoke of how positive it was to play there: “It will be forever recorded in history. “It means a lot to the sport and I hope there are more tournaments here.”
In the doubles branch, the champions of the WTA Finals 2024 were the Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and the New Zealander Erin Routliffe, who defeated the team formed by the American Taylor Townsend and the Czech Katerina Siniakova in two sets (7-5, 6-3). .
Dabrowski and Routliffe received $1,125,000 in prize money for their title in Riyadh, a figure they received with total joy: “We earned a lot of money during the year, I’m not saying no, but this sum changes our lives. We are very grateful. “It’s like the icing on the cake of an incredible week for us,” said the Oceania player.
