Source: Matthew Stockman / Getty
Tennis season is wrapping up, and it is safe to say Coco Gauff closed out the year strong.
Collecting her $4.8 million check, she won the WTA Finals after beating the two best players in the world —Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek– and eventually Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen over the weekend to hoist the trophy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The thrilling match started in Qinwen’s favor, but Gauff fought back,3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2). With the victory, she became the youngest to win the WTA in 20 years, an honor last held by Kim Clijsters in 2002.
But Gauff’s season wasn’t all she hoped it would be. After the match, she told the AP about the roller coaster of a year she’s had at all of the major competitions.
“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,” she told 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. It felt like I was close but just didn’t give myself the best chance.”
While she did beat out Caroline Wozniacki for most WTA 1000s wins before the age of 21, she lost the Italian Open to Swiatek, won the 2024 French Open doubles with her new partner Katerina Siniaková, and won the China Open. But, she got knocked out in the fourth round of Wimbledon by Emma Navarro, and with a whopping 19 double faults, even she acknowledged it wasn’t her best showing.
Still, she’s aware of all the critique she’s been getting online, especially after a promising 2023 that saw her win the Washington Open and capped off by winning the US Open—the first time a teenager has done so since Serena Williams in 1999.
“lol safe to say I beat the bad season allegations,” she tweeted.
See how social media is reacting to the victory below.
