Gauff beats Swiatek at the WTA finals and secures the semi-final place

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – World No. 3 Coco Gauff earned her second career victory over No. 2 Iga Swiatek to secure a place in the semifinals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh presented by PIF. In their 13th career meeting, Gauff defeated the defending champions 6-3, 6-4, improving to 2-0 in round-robin play and taking control of the Orange Group.

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The victory is Gauff's first win over Swiatek since the 2023 Cincinnati Open and ended the Pole's six-game winning streak at the WTA Finals. The 20-year-old was a semi-finalist in Cancun last year and is now the youngest player to reach back-to-back semi-finals at the WTA Finals since Caroline Wozniacki in the 2009/10 season. She is the youngest American to achieve this since Tracy Austin in 1979-80.

“Of course it's difficult for me to play against Iga, but I'm really happy with how I managed to play the whole game,” said Gauff. “And yes, it was a fun spectator atmosphere. It was pretty exciting. That’s why I’m glad I got through today.”

Earlier in the day, Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova defeated No. 6 Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-3 to secure her first career WTA Finals win in singles. Gauff has thus secured her promotion, but her position will be determined on the final group match day on Thursday when she takes on Krejcikova.

Swiatek lost the group 1-1 and will face Pegula in a rematch of the US Open quarterfinal, which the American won 6-2, 6-4. Swiatek's defeat against Gauff ensured that Aryna Sabalenka will end the season as world number 1 for the first time at the end of the year.

Heading into Tuesday night's game, Swiatek held a dominant 11-1 record against Gauff, including two wins this season in the semifinals at Rome and Roland Garros. But after almost two months off after the US Open, Swiatek needed three tough sets to get past Barbora Krejcikova in her opening match in Riyadh. Gauff, a champion at the China Open last month, easily edged Jessica Pegula in straight sets.

Gauff mastered the opening set with ease without suffering a single break point. Gaining confidence with each easy serve, Gauff kept the pressure on Swiatek, scoring break points and scoring two breaks in four of Swiatek's five service games in the first set.

Swiatek recovered at the start of the second set but continued to have problems serving. She broke Gauff twice to gain a break advantage, but immediately gave up the lead in her next service game. Swiatek used her serve to keep the game in play at 5-4 and pushed forward with two long forehands to secure her fifth and final break of the night. The victory is Gauff's 52nd of the year, the highest tally of her career in a season.

“Well, I certainly wasn’t strong enough and Coco took advantage of her chances much better than I did,” Swiatek said. “You
You know, I had some break points that I didn't win. And I certainly made more unforced errors. And when you play Coco, you know you have to be solid. Even though our duel was more positive for me, it's still never easy to win against them.

“Today she was definitely a better player and I will try to adapt a little better in my next game and do some things tomorrow, practice more to play better.”

Gauff finished the evening with 10 wins with 33 unforced errors, including 11 double faults. Swiatek passed Gauff with 15 game-winning goals but made 47 unforced errors.

“I think I didn’t let the doubles get to me even though they were there,” said Gauff. “In Wuhan, I felt like I was just feeling bad and feeling even worse, and I tried not to allow myself to do that here.”

“I'm in the process of changing things, so it's up and down, and I feel like it's going in the right direction, like you said, the first set, no stopping point, and yeah, I don't even know , whether.” This happened mainly against her. So, yes, I think it's going in the right direction. And I was still in the game even if I didn't serve well, which gives me confidence for the next game.