Tennis superstar Coco Gauff brought her season to an end by winning the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ESPN reports. The 20-year-old made history as the youngest player since Maria Sharapova in 2004 to win the tournament.
During the highly competitive match, Gauff rallied to defeat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the final on Saturday (Nov.9).
On her way to the historic victory, Gauff took down two of the world’s top two players, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
In the post-game interview, she put all her doubters on notice.
“I just love to say I’m right. Specifically today, I got comments about how I was going to lose badly, so I was just like, ‘OK, we’ll see,’” Gauff said. “It’s honestly just liking the idea of just proving people wrong and, and letting your racket do the talking. And so, yeah, I use it as motivation.”
In a year full of challenges, Gauff showed the world that she had what it takes to persevere.
“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,” Gauff said in an interview with the Associated Press.
“The worst? Definitely my U.S. Open loss. I felt that was just a hard loss for me, because I double-faulted so many times,” Gauff said with a self-deprecating chuckle. “It felt like I was close but just didn’t give myself the best chance.”
In her last 15 tournaments, Gauff went 13-2 which included two titles and a semifinal run.
“The key is when you reach a low, the only way you can go is up,” Gauff shared. “So at that point, I just said, ‘Well, I have to get better at some things, and just try to do that.’ Being a tennis player, you can’t miss a bunch of tournaments just to practice, I mean, you can, but I didn’t want to do that; I didn’t want to take that route, so I just decided to be willing to accept the losses and wins while working on things.”
Gauff is also the first American to win the Finals since Serena Williams in 2014 and took home $4.8 million in prize money.
The close out the season Gauffwas the number three ranked player in the world, with a 54-17 record, and three trophies.
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