Sports

The week in tennis: Gauff wins WTA Finals title, while underdogs rule in last ATP events

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  • D’Arcy Maine, ESPN.com

Nov 12, 2024, 10:34 AM ET

Coco Gauff opened the 2024 season with the title in Auckland.

And while there were ups-and-downs along the way, she finished the season just as she started, with another victory, by winning the WTA Finals at the year-end event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

It was a statement-making run for Gauff throughout the week, as she defeated the world’s top two ranked players, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, in the semifinals and in group play, respectively. Gauff then recorded a gutsy comeback performance against reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the over-three-hour final for a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) win.

Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, trailed 5-3 in the decider and was two points away from being the runner-up before she stormed back. She won the first six points of the tiebreak and then cemented her champion status on her third match point. It was the longest title match in WTA Finals history — as evident by Gauff’s reaction at its conclusion:

“At the end of the match, when I fell on the floor, I didn’t think I was going to do that,” Gauff later said. “I kind of made a promise to myself that I will only save that for Grand Slams, but honestly, the way the match went, I was like, ‘I’m just tired. I just want to lay on the ground.'”

Gauff earned a record-setting $4.8 million for winning the title — the largest paycheck for a WTA event in history — and she has now topped the $20 million mark in career earnings. She later told reporters she “knew it was some money” for winning the WTA Finals but didn’t know specifically how much. “That’s a lot of money,” she said before admitting she had no idea what she would do with it.

Gauff became the first American to win since Serena Williams in 2014, and the youngest player to hoist the trophy since Maria Sharapova in 2004, the year Gauff was born. According to the WTA, she joins only Swiatek as active players under 30 years old to have won a WTA title at every level. Pretty impressive for someone just out of her teen years, and considering many said she was having a down year.

“lol safe to say I beat the bad season allegations,” Gauff wrote on X.

Having famously thanked her haters during her immediately viral on-court speech in New York last year, Gauff had a different mentality on Saturday and instead she thanked her fans on social media for the unwavering support after the win.

Gauff, who will not be a part of the U.S. team at the Billie Jean King Cup this week, will now get her (ever-so-brief) offseason started at the Camp Flog Gnaw music festival in Los Angeles. And while there will be thousands of 20-year-olds at the festival, she will likely be one of the very few who will be named-dropped by Tyler, the Creator during his set.

Here’s what else you might have missed from the WTA Finals and around the tennis world last week:

Dabrowski and Routliffe’s perfect season finale

The doubles final in Riyadh was as compelling as singles, featuring two teams who had gone undefeated in group play. Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova, the reigning Wimbledon champions, were looking to close out their debut season together with another impressive trophy — but Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, who had lost in the Wimbledon final, had other plans.

Looking to avenge the loss at the All England Club, as well as secure their second-biggest title together after winning the 2023 US Open, Dabrowski of Canada and Routliffe of New Zealand fought hard to take the opening set, and then took control at 3-all in the second set for a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

“I think when it comes down to those big moments, the big thing for us was we just wanted to go and take it, and they weren’t gonna give it to us,” Routliffe said later. “So we tried to kind of pep talk ourselves to go for our shots and be more aggressive in those big moments. I think that’s probably what the difference-maker was. We stayed aggressive, we stayed committed, and we supported each other in those big moments.”

While their payday wasn’t quite as large as Gauff’s record-setting amount, the duo still walked away with $1.125 million, or $562,500 each — a substantial increase from the prize money for doubles at any of the Slam events.

“We’re super grateful for the prize money here,” Routliffe said. “It’s like a huge icing on the cake to what’s been an amazing week for us. We make good money during the year. I’m not saying we don’t, but this is kind of a life-changing amount.”

Worth the wait

When qualifying began at the Belgrade Open on Nov. 2, it had been five years since Denis Shapovalov won his only ATP title, and over two years since he had even reached a final. He was hampered by injury for the latter part of 2023, and spent most of the 2024 season outside the top 100, so Shapovalov was hardly a favorite, and even needed to come through qualifying for entry.

But as we’ve seen time and time again, one week can change everything in tennis, and the 25-year-old Canadian seemed to save his best for his last ATP tournament of the season.

In Belgrade, Shapovalov won seven matches in eight days — and dropped just one set — including a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the final on Saturday against Serbian native and crowd favorite Hamad Medjedovic. Shapovalov needed just 77 minutes to claim the trophy, recording 13 aces and winning 82% of his first-serve points on the match. When Medjedovic’s final ball went long, Shapovalov fell to the floor in celebration.

“It has been a good season for me, just been healthy and back on court,” Shapovalov said later. “It takes time to climb back up the rankings. A week like this will help a lot.”

Shapovalov moved up 22 rankings spots, to No. 56, following his week, and received the trophy from none other than the King of Serbian tennis himself, Novak Djokovic. Shapovalov had joked earlier in the week that he never realized he had fans in Serbia because “I lose to Novak every time” — and the two were all smiles on Saturday on court.

Bonzi’s dream week

Shapovalov wasn’t the only qualifier to make a miraculous run to the title last week.

Benjamin Bonzi, a 28-year-old Frenchman, won the first ATP trophy of his career on home soil at the Moselle Open in Metz on Saturday behind a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over Cameron Norrie in the final. But what makes it even more improbable is that Bonzi hadn’t won a tour-level match all year before the tournament got underway.

While Bonzi had found success in 2024 in Challenger events, he failed to advance out of qualifying in most of the ATP tournaments he tried to enter, and was 0-6 in main draw play in those he was able to participate. To call him an unlikely champion might be the understatement of the year.

His thrilled reaction at the end truly says it all.

“I am coming back from very far away this year. It was a very tough season,” Bonzi told the crowd shortly after. “I was not expecting a week like that. That’s crazy to finish the year like this.”

Ranked No. 124 at the start of the tournament, Bonzi is now No. 78.

Sabalenka ends year on top

Sabalenka’s year didn’t finish as she hoped, with the WTA Finals crown, but her semifinal result at the event was still good enough for her to walk away with the year-end No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career. She had come close to achieving the milestone in 2023 but Swiatek narrowly edged her out. Swiatek now ends 2024 as the No. 2.

Sabalenka, who won two major titles this season, is the 16th player in WTA history to end the year in the top spot. It also marks her fifth consecutive year of ending the season in the top 10 — the best streak among active players. In a video posted by the WTA of Sabalenka holding the No. 1 trophy, she said she was “super excited and happy” about the achievement.

“I mean, I just have to enjoy that, right?,” she added with a smile.

Siniakova finished the year as the World No. 1 doubles player for the fourth(!) time in her career following a season that saw her win two major trophies — with two different partners — as well as three other WTA titles and Olympic gold in mixed doubles. The 28-year-old Siniakova now trails only Martina Navratilova, who did it five times, for the most seasons in the top spot.

ATP Finals gets underway

The 2024 ATP Finals started on Sunday in Turin, Italy, with the top eight men’s singles players and the top eight doubles teams battling for the season’s final trophies. Like the WTA Finals last week, the festivities kicked off with entertaining social media videos — including an endearing joint interview with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, and one in which Taylor Fritz explains his recent hair color choices. But it was what happened during the first day of competition that really got everyone talking.

While playing Fritz on Sunday in their first match of round robin-style group play, Daniil Medvedev struggled with his emotions and all but melted down. After smashing his racket following three consecutive double faults to lose the tightly contested opening set, Medvedev was given a warning by the chair umpire.

And it only got worse from there. After a mishit lob from Fritz landed on the baseline for Fritz to take a 4-2 lead in the second set, Medvedev was issued a point penalty after he threw his racket and then hit an on-court microphone. Clearly angered, he then continued to toss his racket erratically and even held it backwards — with the grip facing out — while waiting for Fritz’s serve.

“I was like, ‘Whatever, I lost the match. I don’t care,'” Medvedev later said.

Fritz closed out the match soon after 6-4, 6-3, and he later said he forced himself to stay focused on his own game and wasn’t affected by Medvedev’s antics. “I was just laughing,” Fritz said. “I think he’s really funny, to be honest.”

Medvedev, who has been vocal about the balls currently used on tour, told reporters after the match he wasn’t surprised by the match’s outcome and admitted he has not been enjoying himself on court as of late.

“The balls make it so that everyone can do it now, so not at all surprised,” Medvedev said. “I have this every day for like two, three years. Every practice is a struggle. Every match is a struggle. I was holding for a long time. Now I feel zero pleasure of being on the court. So no surprise at all about the match today.”

Tiafoe and friends

While Frances Tiafoe didn’t make the year-end tournament in Turin, he still might have been the ATP’s big winner on Sunday. Not only did Tiafoe and his girlfriend (and former NCAA doubles champion) Ayan Broomfield get to watch the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Denver Broncos in epic fashion from the comforts of a suite, they then got to celebrate the victory with noted tennis fans Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. Who needs the ATP Finals, right?

This article was originally published by Espn.com. Read the original article here.

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