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.
The 20-year-old American came from 2-0 and 5-3 down in the final set and was two points from defeat at one stage.
Yet she took the set to a tiebreaker and won the first six points. Zheng threatened a comeback but Gauff took the victory off her third match point with a forehand winner as she came into the net.
Gauff beat the world´s top two players – Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek – on her run to the final at the season-ending event in Riyadh.
Zheng was looking to complete a season in which she reached a grand slam final for the first time at the Australian Open and delivered China´s first Olympic tennis singles gold medal .
Coco Gauff won the WTA Finals for the first time by rallying to beat Zheng Qinwen
The American came from 2-0 and 5-3 down in the final set to beat Zheng (pictured)
But Gauff edged the three-hour final which included 26 break points. Gauff also won their only previous meeting, in the Rome quarterfinals on clay in May.
Gauff beat Sabalenka at age 19 in last year’s U.S. Open final to win her only major in singles to date. She teamed with Katerina Siniakova to win the French Open doubles this year.
In the WTA doubles final, Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand beat Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the United States 7-5, 6-3.
Her triumph in the Saudi Arabian capital comes just days after the rising star confronted the Gulf Kingdom’s royal family over its human rights record.
Before competing, Gauff revealed that she had met with Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud – who serves as the Saudi Ambassador to the United States – to discuss the treatment of women in the country.
‘We spoke with a lot of women here in Saudi. One of them was Princess Reema. Multiple calls with her, how the best approach would be to enter into this different place that women have never kind of, women from U.S., have never kind of been in,’ Gauff told reporters on Friday.
‘I think for me it was important, and it was one of the questions I brought up because about LGBTQ issues, women’s rights issues, how we can help with that.’
Gauff also told reporters that her father was concerned about his daughter visiting the country due to its discrimination against women.
The 20-year-old took the victory off her third match point with a forehand winner
The rising star had confronted the Gulf Kingdom’s royal family over its human rights record
‘Obviously I’m a woman. I was very concerned. My dad was very concerned with me coming here,’ Gauff said.
The 20-year-old tennis star admitted to reporters that she had ‘reservations’ about playing in the event because it was in Saudi Arabia.
‘I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations,’ Gauff said.
‘Obviously, you know who I am and the things I speak about. I was pretty much on every player call I could make with WTA.
‘One of the things I said, if we come here, we can’t just come here and play our tournament and leave. Like, we have to have a real program or real plan in place,’
