It went down to the wire, but Coco Gauff pulled off an incredible comeback at the WTA Final in Riyadh presented by PIF on Saturday, winning the American the first end-of-year championship title of her career.

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Gauff, seeded No. 3, beat China’s Zheng Qinwen, No. 7, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) in a 3-hour, 4-minute final to win the Billie Jean King Trophy and his ninth career. Hologic WTA Tour singles title. This is the longest WTA Finals final since time statistics began being tracked in 2008.

In her third consecutive appearance at the WTA Finals, Gauff had to overcome several deficits to prevail over Zheng. Gauff had to come back from a break in the second set, and she twice lost a break in the third set, where Zheng served for the match at 5-4.

Recalling her run to the 2023 US Open title (where she battled back from a three-match set), Gauff used her courage to fight back on each of those occasions.

Gauff will be rewarded with $4,805,000 for her week in Riyadh – the biggest payout at a Hologic WTA Tour event. The American also claimed third place in the world at the end of the season for the second year in a row.

Strong end to season: Gauff capped his late-season progress with a victory on Saturday. After a round of 16 loss in defending his US Open title, Gauff has bounced back in a big way, winning 12 of his last 14 matches this year.

Zheng also finished the season in great shape. Since Wimbledon, Zheng, this year’s Olympic gold medalist, has posted a 31-6 win-loss record, leading the tour in match wins during that span.

But it was Gauff who entered the championship match with a near-perfect record in the final, and the American continues to excel when she reaches this stage, particularly on hard court.

By winning the Beijing hard-court title last month, Gauff became the first woman in the Open Era to win her first seven hard-court finals at tour level. Gauff has now increased her final hard-court record to 8-0, and she improves to 9-1 in tour finals overall.

Fast facts: With Gauff, 20, and Zheng, 22, facing off in the championship match, Riyadh boasted the youngest combined age of WTA Finals singles finalists since Maria Sharapova beat Serena Williams in the 2004 final. Gauff is now the youngest roster of WTA finalists since 17-year-old Sharapova won the title 20 years ago.

Since the WTA Finals began in 1972, Gauff is the fourth American to win the WTA Finals before turning 21, joining Chris Evert (1972, 1973 and 1975), Tracy Austin (1980) and Serena Williams (2001).

Also this week, Gauff becomes the second American since 1990 to earn four Top 10 victories in a single event before turning 21. Lindsay Davenport first achieved this feat en route to winning gold at the 1996 Olympics.

Key moments: Zheng took command in the first set using heavy, deep shots to break Gauff at love for 5-3. Zheng survived a break point while serving the one-set lead – Gauff went 0 for 5 on break points in the first game.

In the second set, however, Gauff found the aggressive return game that led her to become this year’s leader in return game percentage and return points won. Trailing 3-1, Gauff broke Zheng three times in a row to win the second set and tie the match.

In the unpredictable third set, Gauff again came back from an early breakdown, but Zheng regained the lead and served for the match at 5-4. However, Gauff used deep shots to draw errors from Zheng, and the American broke for 5-5 without ever facing a match point.

Gauff collected two match points on Zheng’s serve at 6-5, but the Chinese player held on and lined up the third set tie-break. Gauff refused to give in and took a 6-0 lead into the break, eventually converting her fifth match point to seal victory in Saudi Arabia.

More to come…