Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Féché NURELDINE / AFP
8.45pm, November 9, 2024modified to
9.31pm, November 9, 2024
A dream week for Coco Gauff. After beating Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, the two best players in the world, the American won in three sets 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) against the Chinese Zheng Qinwen to win her first WTA Masters and become the youngest winner since Maria Sharapova in 2004.
The American Coco Gauff, 3rd player in the world, beat the Chinese Zheng Qinwen (7th) in Riyadh on Saturday 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) after a thrilling final lasting more than three hours to win his first WTA Masters at the age of 20. The winner of the US Open 2023 becomes the youngest winner of the tournament which brings together the eight best players of the season since Maria Sharapova in 2004, at the end of a week where she dominated world No.2 Iga Swiatek in the tournament phase. groups and N.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final.
The American pockets a record check for $4.8 million
For the standard bearer of the American delegation at the last Olympic Games, who experienced disillusionment by being eliminated in the 2nd round in Paris, the season ended in apotheosis. Zheng Qinwen, the first Chinese finalist at the WTA Masters since Li Na in 2013, on the other hand failed to become the first Asian player to triumph in this tournament created in 1972. Coco Gauff now leads 2-0 in her confrontations with the Chinese, who she had beaten more easily on the clay court of Rome in the spring.
The WTA Masters was held for the first time in Riyadh, a choice about which Gauff had admitted having “reservations” before the start of the tournament due to the human rights violations accused of the conservative kingdom by Western NGOs. Thanks to her victory, the American pockets a record check for $4.8 million, higher than the $4.4 million received by the winner of the 2019 edition, Ashleigh Barty.
