Coco Gauff recorded a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka on Friday to set up a showdown with Zheng Qinwen in the championship match of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The winner of Saturday’s title match will pocket a record $4,805,000, the largest prize money check in the history of women’s professional tennis.
Gauff, the third seed, fired three aces and took advantage of three double faults by her foe to dismiss the Belarus native in 1 hour, 49 minutes.
The 20-year-old American became the youngest player to reach the championship match at the WTA Finals since Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in 2010. With a win on Saturday, Gauff would be the youngest WTA Finals champion since Russian Maria Sharapova in 2004.
“I knew I had worked hard on my serve since (Wuhan),” Gauff said. “That was 21 free points that I gave. I knew if I could cut that in half, I would give myself a better chance and obviously I did well over that today.
“Obviously she’s a great player, but I just felt like if I can just play well and serve well, I had a good chance. And once, you know, I stepped on the court and realized I was feeling my serve, I just kind of had that belief that I can win.”
Sabalenka, who will finish the year with the world’s No. 1 ranking, was left to lament several mental errors on Friday.
“Honestly, I have to say she just got lucky in those couple of points at the end of the first set,” Sabalenka said, “and I kind of got distracted and let the game go. And then it was too late to come back in the tiebreak, and I lost the first set.
“I was rushing and not really adjusting to the ball quite well that I did in the first two matches. So I have to say that this match is just full of missed opportunities from my side.”
Zheng, the seventh seed, advanced to Saturday’s final with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
The Chinese star fired nine aces and won 31 of 40 first-serve points en route to dismissing the eighth-seeded Krejcikova in 1 hour, 40 minutes. Zheng improved to 31-5 in her matches since Wimbledon.
“I feel everything is real,” Zheng said of her whirlwind success of late. “I know after Wimbledon I had a big struggle. I did not perform well at Roland Garros. I did not perform well at Wimbledon. I think everything’s for a reason.
“After that, even though I was the Olympic champion, I tried to keep my mentality stable, don’t get relaxed. Seems like it’s working. I still keep the motivations pretty high.”
Krejcikova, in turn, struggled with her play on Friday. She produced 13 winners against 34 unforced errors.
–Field Level Media
