Coco Gauff wins WTA Finals, folded Qinwen Zheng after more than three hours

Coco Gauff wins WTA Finals, folded Qinwen Zheng after more than three hours

After a battle that lasted three hours and five minutes, the U.S. Coco Gauff, world number 3, won the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the last tournament of the year on the women’s circuit, beating China’s Qinwen Zheng, number 7, in the final with a score of 3-6 6-4 7-6.

Up to 4-3 for Zheng neither player lost her serve in the first set but the Chinese saved overall and Gauff one. In the’eighth game è forò the U.S. to lose her serve and hand the first set to Qinwen who when serving at 5-3 also has a chance to cancel another’break ball.

In the second set immediate break in favor of the world number 7 who goes 2-0 and then 3-1 but in the sixth game loses her serve to zero and suffers another break in the’eighth. Gauff then serves to even the set score at 5-3 but sees two set points cancelled and gives up the serve, however in the next game she again breaks her opponent’s serve extending the match to the third set point.

The third set starts immediately with a bang: Zheng breaks immediately but on the fourth chance after missing the first three consecutive, then goes 2-0 but gets counter-break after saving a ball of the’1-1 and missing two for 3-0 with double break. On 3-3 another break for the Chinese, but when she serves for the match on 5-4 she loses serve again. On 5-5 she misses a break ball, then Gauff on 6-5 in her favor has two consecutive match points but does not take advantage of them conceding four points in a row.

The tie-break è the fitting conclusion to a romance match, but if the match had been evenly matched and full of twists è Gauff dominated it going 6-0 and winning it with the score of 7-2 on the fifth match point. For the 20-year-old born in Delray Beach, Florida, è it was the ninth career tournament won on the major circuit, her third in 2024, her first at the WTAs, and ends the year at world No. 3. Zheng è defeated but on Monday she will gain her best ranking, No. 5, behind Jasmine Paolini.