Coco Gauff – Qinwen Zheng, Tournament of Champions final. The “new Serena Williams” impressed against Arya Sabalenka

Coco Gauff impressed against Aryna Sabalenka and will play in the final of the Tournament of Champions, where she faces Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng.

American tennis player Coco Gauff and China’s Qinwen Zheng will be opponents in this year’s Champions Tournament final.

The “new Serena Williams” has a chance to win her third title this year, after those in Auckland and Beijing

The competition takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Gauff impressed in the semi-final against world number one Aryna Sabalenka. She prevailed 7-6 (4), 6-3, after a match that lasted 110 minutes.

It was Gauff’s second consecutive success against the athlete from Belarus. On this occasion, the American became the third player who, in the last 15 years, wins at the Champions Tournament in front of those who occupy the 1st and 2nd places in the WTA ranking. It should be noted that in the Orange Group, Coco had beaten the Polish Iga Swiatek 6-3, 6-4.

“I worked hard at work after the Wuhan tournament. Obviously Aryna is a great player, but I felt like if I can play well and serve well, I have a chance. The moment the match started, I felt that my serve was going, so I had the belief that I could win,” said Gauff, at the end of the match, according to the website WTA.

“Honestly, he got lucky on those two points at the end of the first set. I thought about them too much and was no longer focused on the game. Then it was too late to come back in the tiebreak and I lost the first set.

I was in a hurry and I didn’t control the ball exchange myself, as I did in the first two matches played here,” replied Sabalenka.

Qinwen Zheng can make history at the Tournament of Champions

Gauff will meet Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng on Saturday, November 9. She advanced to the final after defeating Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5.

The Asian can become only the second player in history who wins the Olympic title in the same year and the Tournament of Champions. The precedent was set by the American Serena Williams in 2012, when she defeated her great rival from Russia Maria Sharapova each time, first by a straight 6-0, 6-1, and later by 6-4, 6 -3.

2024 is a great year for the Chinese-born player. She reached the final at the Australian Open, where she was defeated 3-6, 2-6 by Sabalenka, prevailed in Parlemo, lost in the last act in Wuhan to Aryne and won the title in Tokyo.