Coco Gauff couldn’t win a Grand Slam title this season, but she still managed to hit the jackpot before ending her campaign in 2024. She defeated China’s Qinwen Zheng in a grueling three-hour encounter to become the youngest player to win the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova (2004). Not only that but with this victory, she also managed to grab a staggering $4,805,000 pay cheque. That’s the highest payout ever for a tour event! We’ve got quite a few reactions from the tennis world on this staggering prize money and recently, Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs also shared a few words on this in the recent episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis podcast.

Despite showcasing a stellar performance throughout the tournament, her performance against Barbora Krejčíková in her last group stage match drew a lot of criticism. Reason? Her defeat to Krejcikova ensured an early exit for the reigning champion, Iga Swiatek. Several fans and also some tennis experts seemed quite miffed with Coco Gauff’s poor performance in that match. Some of them claimed she deliberately lost the match to knock out Swiatek. However, Stubbs claimed these are “nonsense” and she added that no one would want to lose a match before the SF.

Speaking more on it, Rennae Stubbs then brought in the monetary aspect to debunk all these claims. She explained why Gauff would have never wanted to lose a match. Reflecting on her thoughts about what would’ve been Coco Gauff’s mindset at the WTA Finals, Stubbs added, “She’s thinking I wanna win again. I wanna get more money in my pocket. Because if she had gone undefeated she would’ve got even more money. If you go undefeated, you get an extra bonus on top of that. So, winning actually does count to your bank account. Even we know Coco is going to be set for the rest of her life forever.“

After winning the WTA Finals, Coco Gauff has now surpassed $20 million in her career prize money. She has in fact also become the first tennis player born in 2004 or later, male or female to reach that prize money milestone. What did Coco Gauff say about her staggering prize money in Riyadh?

“4.8. Oh gosh” – Coco Gauff’s reaction to hitting the jackpot in Riyadh

The prize money at the 2024 WTA Finals is the biggest payout in the history of the women’s tennis event. It surpassed Ashleigh Barty’s $4.42 million prize money at the 2019 WTA Finals. If we make an overall comparison with last year’s event, WTA announced a record $15.25 million prize pool for this year’s event and that’s a straight $6.25 million increase from last year’s final in Cancun. Now again, if we compare the prize money in Riyadh to that of the US Open, well, the US Open singles event winner got a cheque of $3,600,002 this year. That’s how big is the difference at the moment!

Revealing her thoughts on this big numerical figure, Coco Gauff said, “I didn’t know, jeez! I knew it was some money but I didn’t know it was that much! It means a lot to me…4.8. Oh gosh. I hope I am one of the highest-paid female tennis players or athletes this year, that will be exciting. Honestly, I wanted to win this for myself, I didn’t know it was the prize cheque on this tour. I knew there was money but I never play for this. But that is cool!“

As per Sportico’s list, Coco Gauff was the highest-paid female athlete in 2023. Time will tell if she can repeat that feat yet again or not, but what would she do with all this money? Well, Gauff looks a bit confused at the moment. She said, “How will I treat myself? I don’t know. I have bought a house and I don’t really know what else I want other than that. I am going to a musical festival next week. I am not someone who likes to spend a lot of money, to be honest. I don’t know what I will do with it. That’s a lot of money!” Share your thoughts on Coco Gauff’s incredible run at the 2024 WTA Finals.