Absolute scenes in Riyadh! Coco Gauff defied all odds to become the 2024 WTA Finals champion. She was down 3-6 against China’s Qinwen Zheng in the first set, but then the young American made a strong comeback to seal the deal in 3 hours and 4 minutes. With this victory, Coco Gauff has now become the youngest winner at the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova (17) took the title almost twenty years ago. What a match it was! Even Gauff didn’t expect this match to go so deep. Later on, she even had to rush to the airport to catch her flight!

This was Coco Gauff’s third consecutive appearance at the WTA Finals. She had to beat both world number one and number two to bring home the beautiful trophy from Riyadh. While bringing this iconic trophy to her home, Gauff had to literally rush to the airport forgetting a few of her post-match commitments. She even issued an apology to her fans for that through an IG story! 

While explaining all these things in that post, she wrote, “straight from the court –>> to trophy ceremony shoot –>>> to airport. Literally wearing heels at the airport. was not anticipating the match to go over 3 hours. So, had to rush out of mindddd but hey it was worth it.” Coco Gauff further added, “also sorry I wasn’t able to sign as much post-match as usual. I had to rush out fasttttt.” It was already 1:15 am on the clock at that time! We can understand what she had to go through after the match.

During the match, her grit to battle back into the match was truly a bliss to watch. It reminded some of the fans about her incredible glory at the 2023 US Open finals. What did Coco Gauff say about her emphatic triumph in Riyadh? Speaking about her incredible comeback during the post-match press conference, Gauff added, “Just staying resilient, fighting for every point. I know I was like a couple points away from losing, but, you know, I just tried to stay in the moment, honestly, and I’m really proud of myself.“

Coco Gauff is just 20 years old and she has now already won a WTA title at every level in her career! Post-match, Gauff got a bit emotional. She dropped to the floor and let out a huge scream, venting out all the emotions she had to go through in the last few hours. Perhaps, that was a sigh of relief to finally make a stellar ending to her 2024 season!

Reflecting on her thoughts on that emotional outburst after the match, Coco Gauff said, “At the end of the match, when I, like, fell on the floor, I didn’t think I was going to do that. I kind of, like, made a promise to myself that I will only save that for Grand Slams. But honestly, to the way the match went, I was like, ‘I’m just tired. I just want to lay on the ground.” What did both the players say about each other’s performance after this hard-fought battle in Riyadh?

“Hopefully we can play many more finals together” – Coco Gauff to Qinwen Zheng

In October, Coco Gauff appeared in an interview after winning the title in Beijing. During that interview, the 20-year-old tennis star admitted “The results confirm that we are heading in the right direction.” Gauf has played 69 matches this season and has won 52 out of them. She has won three titles this season. So, overall it was quite a decent season for the American. We saw her thanking her team and family members for their constant support throughout this “long season,” but what did she say about her opponent, Qinwen Zheng?

After facing defeat at the hands of the world’s number 3, Qinwen Zheng congratulated Gauff by saying, “Congrats to the champion. It’s your first title here. I wish you have a great future.” This was their second meeting on the Tour and Coco Gauff now has a 2-0 lead over the Chinese in the H2H record. 

Even Gauff shared a few words on Zheng after this grueling encounter in Riyadh. She said, “I want to congratulate Qinwen on an incredible match and tournament. You had a stellar season. Winning the gold medal and reaching so many finals. Hopefully, we can play many more finals together. Congrats to your team too. You guys are very nice. It’s fun competition.” Zheng reached the finals of the AO this year! Do you think we can witness a do-or-die match between the two at the first Grand Slam tournament in 2025?