Coco Gauff won the WTA Finals for the first time by rallying to beat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the final on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.
She is the first American to win the Finals since Serena Williams in 2014, and received $4.8 million in prize money. On her way to the championships, she beat the world’s top two players — No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No 2 Iga Swiatek.
The WTA finals is an annual, season-ending championship in women’s professional tennis, featuring the top eight singles players and the top eight doubles teams of the year based on their rankings. Unlike most tournaments, which are single-elimination, the WTA Finals have a round-robin format in the early stages, meaning players are divided into groups and play against each other within those groups.
Gauff lost only one round in the round-robing section of the tournament will allowed her to advance to the semifinals, with each win adding to her prize total. Hers is the biggest payout ever for a women’s tennis event, topping the $4.42 million won by Ashleigh barty during the 2019 WTA finals.
Gauff was the world’s highest-paid female athlete last year with $22.7 million from prize money, appearance fees and endorsements. Gauff added a pair of new endorsement deals this year with L’Oreal to pitch its natural hair care brand Carol’s Daughter and juice brand Naked, where she was named CSO, chief smoothie officer.
In the WTA doubles finals, African-American doubles standout Taylor Townsend and her partner Katerlina Sinakova. The two won all four preliminary rounds on their way to the finals, but lost the big game. The duo entered the competition as the bottom ranked team, but along the way were able to beat the number one and three teams and advance to the final round after a win in in the semi-finals.
Still it was a great year for Townsend, who partnered up with Sinakova about mid-year. Together, they earned Townsend’s first grand slam title with a win at Wimbledon.
