Coco Gauff

Gauff Wins 2024 WTA Finals Tournament

November 13, 2024 by Tara S

Dee Lab | Just Women’s Sports

World No. 3 tennis star Coco Gauff won the 2024 WTA Finals on Saturday, becoming the youngest US player to take the tournament since Serena Williams in 2001.

Gauff’s championship came by way of a grueling three-hour 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) final match win over reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.

The 20-year-old’s road to the $4.8 million purse — the largest in women’s tennis history — included just her second-ever win over No. 2 Iga Świątek in the group round and a semifinal victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Friday.

A winning end to a rollercoaster season
When asked about her 2024 season, Gauff told reporters, “There’s been a lot of ups and downs. At moments, it felt great. At other moments, it felt awful. Basically, a typical year on tour.”

Her low point was a disappointing attempt to defend her 2023 US Open title. Gauff stumbled out of the US Grand Slam in the fourth round this fall.

That performance led Gauff to an apparently productive coaching change. She left coach Brad Gilbert, adding Matt Daly to her team to work with Jean-Christophe “JC” Faurel.

Since then, Gauff has gone 13-2, ultimately adding the China Open and WTA Finals titles to her June French Open doubles trophy.

After silencing doubters with Saturday’s victory, Gauff took to social media, writing “lol safe to say I beat the bad season allegations.”

New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski lift their 2024 WTA Finals doubles trophy.
Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski paired up to make WTA Finals history. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for WTA)
A double dose of WTA Finals history
Just before Gauff took the court, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe were crowned the season’s doubles champions.

Dabrowski and Routliffe avenged their Wimbledon final loss by defeating US player Taylor Townsend and her Czech partner Kateřina Siniaková 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday. They are now the first athletes from Canada and New Zealand to win the WTA Finals doubles title.

Coco Gauff stuns Iga Swiatek to reach semifinals at 2024 WTA Finals

November 6, 2024 by Tara S

David Kane

Gauff earned the straight-sets victory needed to guarantee her spot in the final four in Riyadh, knocking out the former world No. 1 for only the second time in 13 meetings.

Coco Gauff pulled off a massive upset at the 2024 WTA Finals, defying a 1-11 head-to-head against Iga Swiatek to stun the former world No. 1, 6-3, 6-4 and guarantee herself a spot in the semifinals.

“It feels great. I knew going into the match that, despite our head-to-head, I had a lot of confidence,” Gauff said on court. “I felt like I was playing great tennis. Even when I was playing a little bit sloppy in the games I lost, they were still going to deuce, so that gave me confidence. I knew if I could find my game and stay solid, I’d have the chance to close out the match.”

The No. 3 seed not only needed to snap a four-match losing streak against Swiatek to advance out of round-robin play regardless of subsequent results from the Orange Group, but she also needed to win in straight sets. Gauff managed both to close out play on Day 4, conquering Swiatek in one hour and 48 minutes on Riyadh’s Center Court.

Whether Gauff advances first or second out of the Orange Group is to be determined by the final rotation of matches on Thursday. Jessica Pegula has been eliminated from contention, leaving the second spot to be filled by either Swiatek or Barbora Krejcikova, who defeated Pegula in straight sets earlier in the day.

Gauff has endured an up-and-down follow-up to her breakout 2023 season, one that culminated with her first Grand Slam title at the US Open. Though she began the year with back-to-back major semifinals at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, serve and forehand woes followed her through the summer and saw her Flushing Meadows title defense end behind a flurry of double faults.

The 20-year-old rebounded somewhat in Asia, winning a WTA 1000 title at the China Open but suffering another tragic serving day at the Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open, where she narrowly lost in in the semifinals to Aryna Sabalenka.

In Riyadh with new coach Matt Daly, Gauff opened with a strong performance against fellow American Jessica Pegula to book a meeting with Swiatek, who roared back from a set and two breaks down to defeat Barbora Krejcikova.

Gauff shook off intermittent serving woes to outmatch Swiatek for only the second time in their 13-match rivalry.

Facing the Pole on hard courts for the first time since last year’s WTA Finals, Gauff pressured Swiatek early, forcing her to save three break points in her second service game. Though Swiatek, who is also at the WTA Finals with a new coach—having hired Wim Fissette after a US Open quarterfinal exit to Pegula—dug out of the long game, she found herself on the back foot again and again, ultimately giving up two breaks to hand Gauff the opening set.

The second set got closer as some of Gauff’s service issues reared back up—nine double faults to only two in the first set—and Swiatek twice led by a break. Gauff quickly reclaimed the initiative both times and put down a strong service hold to put herself on the brink of a very big win.

“From the ground, on the return of serve, I think I had three games in a row with break points. But I didn’t let that discourage me. I knew I was going to get it eventually. Even in the last game, I missed two forehand returns but I told myself, ‘It’s ok, I’ll get the next one,” and I did!”

Swiatek was dealing with visible frustration on top of a relentless onslaught from Gauff, who outrallied the Pole to earn a match point. A bold final gambit by Swiatek failed to pay off as a forehand swing volley flew long, putting Gauff over the finish line in just under two hours.

Gauff will end her round-robin campaign against Krejcikova, while Swiatek will face Pegula for the first time since losing their match at the US Open.

Chronicling Coco Gauff’s week as US Open champion

September 12, 2023 by Tara S

Anthony Gharib | ESPN

It’s been quite the week for Coco Gauff.

The 19-year-old American won the US Open on Saturday, her first ever Grand Slam victory. She became the youngest American to win a major tournament since Serena Williams won the US Open in 1999 at 17.

From a phone call with President Joe Biden to another primetime showing in New York, here’s a look inside Gauff’s whirlwind week since becoming champ:

Saturday: Gauff thanks New York crowd

Since her US Open debut in 2019, Gauff’s been the crowd favorite in the Big Apple. It became even more evident during her championship run this year, the fans showing their support throughout each match.

Gauff paid them back moments before lifting the trophy, showing how much the fans in New York meant to her.

“Last but not least, thank you to New York,” she said. “Thank you to you guys. You guys pulled me through this gas fire. The supporters that I have mean so much to me, so thank you all. And thank you to everyone who made this tournament possible.”

Saturday: Presidential congratulations

The 46th President offered his congratulations on X, formerly known as Twitter, but also made a phone call to the teenager. Gauff shared a snippet of their conversation in a video on TikTok. “Coco, this is Joe Biden,” the President said. “Congratulations.”

Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama also congratulated Gauff on X:

“The support I have gotten is incredible,” said Gauff, according to the Associated Press. “Obviously, from President Obama and former First Lady Michelle is crazy that they were here my first-round match, and now I’m a different person now.”

Sunday: Prime-time football in the Big Apple

From the hard court to the gridiron, Gauff took in “Sunday Night Football” between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. Gauff, a Miami Dolphins fan, posed on the field with Saquon Barkley and Eli Manning before the game.

Monday: Appearance on NBC’s “Today Show”

After a night at MetLife Stadium, Gauff had a quick turnaround for a live interview on Monday morning’s “Today Show.”

She touched on the emotions of becoming a Grand Slam champion in her home country, how her brothers missed her call after winning and what it felt like laying on the hard court after being champion.

“It felt like it hit all at once because I didn’t want to tell myself it was match point on the match point. I didn’t want to start shaking,” Gauff said. “So when it happened and … it was over, my previous matches it’s taken me six, seven match points to win and that was on the first one, so I was a little bit shocked. And I couldn’t breathe either.”

At 19 years old, Coco Gauff reaches first-ever US Open SF

September 5, 2023 by Tara S

Scott Sode | US Open

WHAT HAPPENED: American tennis keeps rolling at the 2023 US Open. At just 19 years old, American Coco Gauff has reached her first-ever US Open semifinal with an absolute clinical 6-0, 6-2 victory over No. 20 seed Jelena Ostapenko.

The pair had split their two previous meetings, though the Latvian scored a straight-set victory in their last encounter, in Round 4 at the Australian Open in January. That first set was quite close, however, with Ostapenko saving four break points at 4-3 and then breaking Gauff at 6-5 to ultimately swing the momentum of the match in her favor. In order to come out on top in today’s contest, the American would need to remain solid, weather a barrage of winners and take advantage when her streaky opponent started to miss.

Ostapenko, conversely, would need to keep her unforced errors low, in the same range as what she committed in her fourth-round upset of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek (20)—as opposed to the amount she produced in the second round against Elina Avanesyan (80).

And at the beginning of the match, Ostapenko could not keep the stat sheet clean. She hit half the unforced errors she hit total in her previous match in just the first three games to immediately go down a double break to the American in just nine minutes.

Credit Gauff, however, who from the very beginning committed to chasing every ball down. Desperate to make anything work, Ostapenko tried going for an uncharacteristic drop shot on break point in her next service game; Gauff sprinted up to the ball and easily put it away to break again. She claimed the first set in just 20 minutes, and Ostapenko headed off court to regroup.

The second set looked as if it might mirror the first, as Gauff broke Ostapenko in her first two service games. But the Latvian—who became the third woman in history to win four straight three-set matches to reach the US Open quarterfinals—began to find the court and produce the winners that propelled her to her victory over Swiatek. She reeled one of those breaks back and held for the first time, and even earned a break point opportunity at 3-2 with another shot for which she is not necessarily known: a lob.

But Gauff stayed tough, delighting the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium with her trademark speed and holding steady. She held her serve, then broke Ostapenko again as the No. 20 seed began to spray her shots again. She capably came back from a 0-30 deficit on her final service game and hit an incredible forehand winner to end a 17-shot rally to become a first-time US Open semifinalist.

WHAT IT MEANS: American tennis is in good hands. After becoming the first American teenager since Serena Williams to reach back-to-back US Open Grand Slam quarterfinals, Gauff is now the first American teenager to reach the US Open semifinals since the 23-time Grand Slam champion achieved the feat in 2001. The No. 6 seed next faces the winner of the match between Sorana Cirstea and Karolina Muchova. Gauff holds a 1-0 edge over both players, most recently beating Muchova just a month ago to take the title in Cincinnati. She came through a tight three-setter against Cirstea in the second round of the 2020 Australian Open.

MATCH POINT: The summer of Gauff continues. The American has now won 10 matches in a row, which ties her previous career-best win streak.