Coco Gauff ended a disappointing year with a flourish as she produced a fine comeback to win the WTA Finals on Saturday night, landing the biggest cheque in the history of women's sport in the process.
Gauff recovered from a set and a break down to beat China's Qinwen Zheng 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-2) in an epic three-hour clash in Saudi Arabia.
The American has overcome a difficult second half of the year, where she went out of Wimbledon and the US Open in the fourth round, to win her biggest tournament of 2024.
She had to do it the hard way as she was 3-1 down in the second set, with Zheng also serving for the match in Riyadh, and looked like losing the end-of-season showpiece event.
But her notorious fighting skills came to fore, helping her get over the line to became the first American to win the tournament since Serena Williams in 2014.
Gauff pocketed $4,805,000 (€4,482,903) in prize money at the event, which is the largest sum won by a player of either gender at a tour-sanctioned tournament, although Jannik Sinner scooped an even more eye-watering $6m (€5.6m) for winning the 6 Kings Slam exhibition event last month in a country accused of sportswashing to enhance its reputation internationally.
"I’m tired and happy the season is over, it was a great match, Qinwen played great tennis, I tried my best to hang in there and I never gave up," Gauff told Sky Sports after her victory.
"I’ve been in situations like this in the past and have been able to turn it around and I was so glad to do it again."
Zheng must have thought she was going to cap a remarkable breakthrough year in the best possible way when she led 3-1 in the second set and then served for the match in the third.
But still, 2024 was a year for her to remember, having claimed Olympic gold in Paris while also reaching her first grand slam final when she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open in January.
