"Not having to play the other tournaments, just feels great": Coco Gauff shares importance of lifting Wuhan Open title after few tough months

America’s Coco Gauff has highlighted why winning the Wuhan Open was extremely important for her. The 21-year-old came out on the right side of the result in the final of the WTA 1000 event against fellow countrywoman Jessica Pegula in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 7-5.

It was Gauff’s second title this year. Her first — and till Saturday the only — title was the French Open, where she defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final with a score of 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Talking after the match, Gauff spoke to Arab News, where she highlighted that winning the Wuhan Open was an extremely important one for her, as not only did she lift the WTA 1000 title, but also qualified for the WTA Finals. Gauff stated that qualifying for the WTA Finals so early is something she is really proud of.

“I think it means a lot to me,” said Gauff. “I think it just shows that I’m definitely not falling behind and I want to continue to improve and get higher in the ranking points and do well. For me, just qualifying for the finals, especially a bit early — I consider this early, not having to play the other tournaments, just feels great. This is a prestigious tournament, one that I always look forward to playing and being a part of. I remember I was so tired going into that tournament and I had never played that long into the season, and as grueling as a season before; and then like playing singles and doubles too. When I lost my first match, I was like, OK, it’s fine. I just had the goal to just win one match and it just didn’t happen. And then honestly, right after that, I was like, well, to win this tournament, I have to do so much.”

The WTA Finals is the last major competition in the women’s tennis calendar, where the top eight players will take part. This year, Gauff will be defending her title. She defeated China’s Zheng Qinwen with a score of 3-6, 6-4, 7-6.

This will be the second time the competition has been played in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Last year, the competition was organised for the first time. Under the deal with the WTA, the competition will be held in the country's capital for three years. When the competition was organised for the first time, it received a lot of criticism. The reason behind that was the human rights record of the Middle Eastern country.

Gauff then spoke about the impact of the competition on the sporting world. The two-time Grand Slam winner was of the opinion that sports have the power to bring people closer. Gauff also stated that it was a smart move to have an initial deal of just three years to host such a big event, just to ‘test the waters’.

Gauff stated that she felt the ‘energy’ was very much there when she was playing in Riyadh last year. Gauff also highlighted that she was ‘impressed’ by the number of people from different nationalities turning out for the matches, even though at first she thought there would not be too many foreigners in the arena to watch the matches live.

“I think sport has the power to do a lot of things and bring people together,” said Gauff. “And I felt like the energy was there when I was inside the stadium, that everyone was enjoying the tennis and coming together. People from all nationalities attending, some Americans, Chinese, everyone coming. I didn’t expect a lot of people to travel for the tournament, honestly. So, I was pretty impressed to see how many people came and I enjoyed the atmosphere. I definitely think that for Riyadh, it was smart to just do three years, just to test the waters and see how it goes, considering that there was never a women’s professional event there. But from a player perspective, it definitely seemed like it was successful. I don’t know how it was logistically and all that, but from my experience, it seems successful. So I wouldn’t mind coming back in the future for longer than three years.”