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DUBAI: When an 18-year-old Coco Gauff qualified for her first WTA Finals in 2022, she lost all six matches she played across singles and doubles that week in Fort Worth, Texas.

Two years later in Riyadh, Gauff knocked out the world’s top two, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, en route to the final, and overcame China’s Zheng Qinwen in a gruelling three-hour title decider to be crowned WTA Finals champion.

She is the youngest to win the prestigious tournament since Maria Sharapova won it as a 17-year-old in 2004, and pocketed a record $4.8 million paycheck for her efforts.

Gauff will be back in Riyadh next month to defend her crown, having secured a fourth consecutive qualification for the WTA Finals.

A constant presence in the world’s top 10 for the past three years, Gauff takes pride in her consistency, and her relentless pursuit of greatness.

“I think it means a lot to me,” Gauff told Arab News from the Wuhan Open this week.

“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.”

Gauff’s journey since her 2022 finals debut has been anything but conventional. But those following the American’s rise from teen prodigy to two-time Grand Slam champion would expect nothing less from a player who exploded onto the tour at the age of 15, declaring she wanted to be the greatest of all time.

Looking back at her 0-6 run in Fort Worth, Gauff chuckles at the mere thought of it.

“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,” she said.

“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 next year at the finals’ staging in Cancun, Gauff won two of her round-robin matches and reached the semifinals, before storming to the title in Riyadh 12 months later.

The WTA Finals is the first professional women’s tennis tournament to take place in �������� and is part of a wider initiative to promote the sport across the Kingdom, and encourage young girls to aspire to follow in the footsteps of the tour’s biggest stars.

Numerous community engagement activities have been staged alongside the finals, as well as throughout the year, and Gauff says a particular clinic was one of her favorite moments from her time in Riyadh last season.

“We did an activation with the Special Olympics kids — Judy (Murray) ran it — which was really cool to do and meet those kids,” said the world No. 3. 

“I don’t know, it just brought a little bit my inner child out again. I had a lot of fun doing the games and playing with the balloons. And my partner was super sweet and funny.

“So I think for me that was the most fun that I had doing something and just seeing how happy the kids were just to have us come and expose them to tennis and other things. So I think that was my favorite memory.

“And then obviously winning,” she added with a smile.

Next month’s WTA Finals is the second of a three-year deal between the women’s tour and the Saudi Tennis Federation to hold the elite-eight tournament in the Kingdom’s capital.

After a planned 10-year stay in Shenzhen was cut short due to the pandemic, the finals moved from Guadalajara to Fort Worth to Cancun between 2021 and 2023.

Riyadh is the first stable home for the WTA Finals since Singapore (2014-2018) and Gauff was impressed by the turnout and fan engagement in year one.

“I think sport has the power to do a lot of things and bring people together,” said the Floridian.

“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.”

The Chinese fans who turned up for Zheng at the King Saud University Indoor Arena were one of the highlights of the week last year.

“They were really fun to play in front of. My final was like one of my favorite tennis atmospheres. I love the Chinese fans, even if they’re not cheering for me, it’s just, they bring that energy,” Gauff said.

While the current deal between the WTA and the STF concludes in 2026, there could be benefits to extending the finals’ stay in Riyadh.

The tournament is considered the crown jewel of the women’s tour, and is a great way of promoting tennis by changing location every few years, taking the sport to different locations and introducing it to new markets.

But while moving around has its advantages, longer-term deals allow the tournament to build a lasting legacy in a specific location, and gather a robust audience year on year.

Asked if extending the current agreement with Riyadh would be beneficial for the WTA Finals, Gauff said: “I don’t know. Because my last three finals, I’ve been in three different places, I definitely don’t think we should go to different places every year.

“Now, I don’t feel like I’ve been on a tour long enough to know like if 10 years is the right thing or not, because I’ve played in three different years. And I definitely think that there’s benefit to keeping a tournament there for at least two or three years in a row.

“I think that it builds a culture of that tournament in that area, which can bring more attention and also allow fans to, if they want to go to plan their trips and things — I think that was the issue with the two previous WTA Finals before last year’s, it was announced pretty late. And I don’t think that the turnout was great because of that. So I definitely think that there’s benefit to having stability there.

“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.”

The WTA Finals will be staged from Nov. 1-8 at King Saud University Indoor Arena and will feature the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams from the 2025 season.

Six women have already booked their places in singles: Sabalenka, Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova, Madison Keys, Gauff and Jessica Pegula.

Three women, Mirra Andreeva, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina are battling for the remaining two singles spots.

A record $15,500,000 prize money is on offer, with an undefeated singles champion set to earn a whopping $5.235 million.