Gauff's WTA Finals title ends season with $4.8M check and big turnaround

Coco Gauff pays attention to what people say about her online and occasionally takes pleasure in clapping back, so it should not be a surprise that she took to social media to type out a message after wrapping up 2024 by winning the WTA Finals and the $4.8 million check that came with it.

"lol safe to say I beat the bad season allegations," Gauff wrote.

After defeating the women ranked Nos. 1 and 2 — Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek — earlier in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Gauff got past Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) on Saturday in the title match. That allowed the No. 3 Gauff to close her year with a 54-17 record and three trophies.

"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," the 20-year-old Floridian said in a telephone 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."

How did she put aside that 19-double-fault, fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro in September as the defending champion at Flushing Meadows? That's an important question, because as disappointing as the setback was — where it happened, how it happened — that marked a pivotal moment.

From there, Gauff split from coach Brad Gilbert and hired Matt Daly to work alongside Jean-Christophe "JC" Faurel on her team.

And from there, Gauff went 13-2 at her last three tournaments, including two titles and a semifinal run.

"The key is when you reach a low, the only way you can go is up," Gauff explained. "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."

So far, so good.

One significant improvement: Gauff averaged 4.6 double-faults across her five matches at the WTA Finals, certainly much better than at the U.S. Open.

In Saturday's final, Gauff produced more aces (five) than double-faults (four) and turned in a higher first-serve percentage (64 to 62) and a higher winning percentage on first-serve points (70 to 62) than Zheng, one of the tour's top servers.

There was not a thing that was easy about this triumph.

Gauff's run included those victories over Sabalenka (in the semifinals) and Swiatek (in round-robin play), making the American the youngest player to win against the top two women at one tournament since Maria Sharapova at the 2006 U.S. Open.

"She's a fighter," Sabalenka said about Gauff.

The final was a serious test of wills — the first WTA Finals championship match settled by a third-set tiebreaker, and, at 3 hours, 4 minutes, more than a half-hour longer than any title match at the event since record-keeping began in 2008.

"When you play this type of match," Zheng said, "it's not about tennis, it's just about choices on court."

At this still-early stage in her career, Gauff seems to be making good choices on and off the court. Her response to, and rebound from, what happened in New York illustrates that.

As does becoming the youngest champ at the WTA Finals — which is for the top eight women in the game — since Sharapova was a teenager in 2004.

"Playing the best of the best," Gauff said, "makes me feel confident in my game."

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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis