Second set: Zheng* 6-3, 1-0 Gauff (*denotes next server) Just the £2.5 million for winning this game, remember. The players pause between sets, Gauff opens a box and picks out something that looks like a handful of nuts. She immediately goes 15-0 down on her serve, but pulls back when Zheng feathers into the net and is so furious she wangs her foot with her racket. But she pounces on a pie from Gauff, and from deuce, powers on, winning a break point – and breaking immediately in the second set.
Zheng wins the first set 6-3!
First set: Zheng 6-3 Gauff* (*denotes next server) Gauff examines her racket, but is quickly 30-0 down on the Zheng serve. Zheng is not happy as she returns one into the net, muttering as she goes to wipe her face and racket on a towel. She hits long and is suddenly 40-30 down. But Gauff’s backhand goes out, and Zhang has suddenly whipped away the set.
First set: Zheng 1-0 Gauff * (*denotes next server) Here we go – Zheng, in purple pleated gym skirt and vest top to serve. The umpires quietens the crowd down. Gauff can’t do anything with first two serves, but pulls back when Zheng hits long in two rallies – and again to bring things to deuce after a 17-hit rally. Gauff gets a precious break point, but Zheng saves the set with a drilled forehand and then a monster serve.
First Zheng Qinwen, then Coco Gauff, both hand in hand with a mascot. Gauff wearing headphones, Qinwen not. Both are in purple – unless that’s the lights
Lots of chat about Gauff’s forehand. She changed her team, splitting with Brad Gilbert after the US Open, and joining forces with Matt Daly. Since then, she’s been storming up the rankings – and the forehand has been one of the main talking points.
“I don’t want to give too much of what’s going on, but there are changes happening,” Gauff said. “I’ve been playing with them since Beijing.”
Good afternoon! Welcome to the WTA final from Riyadh – a battle of the bright young things, between the USA’s Coco Gauff (20), who is finishing the season with a bang, and the charismatic Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen (22) – whose record since an early defeat at Wimbledon has been astonishing, winning 31 of 36 matches, and picking up two titles plus that Paris triumph. She is playing in her first WTA final, the second Chinese player after Li Na.
The WTA finals are the biggest tournament outside the slams, with mega bucks -12 million dollars – available courtesy of the Saudis and their attempts to buy up tennis alongside much of the rest of sport. This is the first time a women’s tournament has been held in the Kingdom and it has gone ahead despite disquiet – with promises from both the WTA and Saudi Arabia that it will be a force for good. At the moment, the players are going along with it and happy with how things have gone – but Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have called “a step backwards” for the game.
Play starts at 4pm approx GMT.