Coco Gauff Becomes Fourth Player To Qualify For 2023 WTA Finals

Coco Gauff Becomes Fourth Player To Qualify For 2023 WTA Finals

by Nurein Ahmed

After her mesmeric US Open title success, American teenage sensation Coco Gauff qualified for the 2023 WTA Finals for the second year in a row.

Gauff becomes the fourth player to qualify for the season-ending championships that will be staged in Cancun, Mexico from October 29th to November 5th, 2023. She surpassed the cut-off points of 5,210, joining the already-qualified trio of Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Elena Rybakina.

Gauff qualifies for the WTA Finals for the second straight year after leaving it late last season to get there. On her debut appearance in Fort Worth, Texas she was eliminated in the Round Robin stage in a group containing the likes of Swiatek, Daria Kasatkina, and eventual champion Caroline Garcia, losing all three group matches and failing to win a set.

Gauff will be on double duty at the WTA Finals having qualified in the doubles field too alongside Jessica Pegula. This week, Gauff and Pegula are the first co-ranked doubles No. 1 players since 2019 having ascended to that spot after a quarterfinal run in the US Open doubles competition last week.

They'll be looking to address their poor showing at the WTA Finals where they finished with a 0-3 record in doubles. Pegula is still in contention to qualify in singles, currently occupying fifth spot in the singles Race, less than 1,000 from the cut-off points.

The 19-year-old Gauff had a fabulous summer on American hard courts, winning three titles from four tournaments including her historic first Grand Slam singles title at the 2023 US Open. Gauff came from a set down to defeat new WTA No. 1 Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

She became the first American teenager to win the New York Slam since Serena Williams back in 1999. And Gauff will begin her first week inside the top three of the world rankings after rising to a career-high mark of No. 3 following her stunning success.

Since an ignominious first-round exit at Wimbledon, Gauff won 18 of her 19 matches during the US swing, collecting titles in Washington, Cincinnati, and now a first US Open.

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