American tennis player Cori Coco Gauff made an impressive comeback to win the WTA Final in Riyadh, beating Qinwen Zheng (China) by 2-1 (3:6, 6:4, 7:6). Coco Gauff missed four match points but reached a tiebreak in which she was very inspired and gave only two points to her opponent. The match lasted a record 3 hours and 6 minutes.
The Paris 2024 Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng started the match in Riyadh better. In the first set, she managed to break her opponent’s serve in the eighth game, led 5:3, and then closed the part of her service.
The Chinese woman started confidently in the second set as well, making a break at the very beginning and cementing it for 2:0. However, Coco Gauff did not give up and equalized at 3:3. She made another break to lead 5:3, Qinwen Zheng returned a break but lost her serve again and the score was equalized.
The third set of the match was the most dramatic. Qinwen Zheng made an early break again and secured a 2:0 lead, Coco Gauff again made a rebreak to level the score at 2:2. The Chinese did not give up, broke for 4:3, and then led with 5:3. Coco Gauff returned a game, but Qinwen Zheng served for the match at 5:4 in her favor. However, she couldn’t handle the pressure and the American tennis player broke to equalize once again.
At 6:5, Coco Gauff missed two match points on Qinwen Zheng’s serve, who managed to defend herself and send the match into a tiebreak. In it, Coco Gauff led by 6-0, Qinwen Zheng had the strength for two points, but that was all.
The two were very evenly matched in the match, with Coco Gauff hitting 5 aces to 4 for the Chinese tennis player. Both hit 21 winners, and Qinwen Zheng‘s unforced errors were 61 to 50 for the American.