For only the second time in 13 career tries, 20-year-old US tennis star Coco Gauff defeated former World No. 1 Iga Świątek in straight sets at the 2024 WTA Finals on Tuesday, guaranteeing Gauff a spot in Saturday's semifinals.
No. 3 Gauff clinched the 6-3, 6-4 result in one hour and 48 minutes on Riyadh’s Center Court to join Aryna Sabalenka as the first two players to book tickets to the semifinals.
"I knew going into the match, despite our head-to-head [history], I had a lot of confidence and I felt like I was playing great tennis," Gauff said after the match.
The first and only other time Gauff defeated Świątek was at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, when the pair battled to a 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 finish. Gauff went on to win that tournament, just weeks before earning her first Grand Slam championship by winning the 2023 US Open.
Gauff's Tuesday win also guarantees that Sabalenka will finish the calendar year as World No. 1, bolstered by her 2024 US Open win and her strong performances this week.
Semifinals take shape
While Sabalenka and No. 7 Qinwen Zheng both advanced from the Purple Group on Wednesday, ending No. 4 Jasmine Paolini's and No. 5 Elena Rybakina's WTA Finals runs, Gauff and Świątek each have one more group match on the tournament's docket.
Gauff will aim to win the Orange Group outright by defeating No. 8 Barbora Krejčíková on Thursday. As for Krejčíková, she'll be competing for a shot at advancing over Świątek, who will look to defeat alternate Daria Kasatkina to claim the final semifinals spot.
Pegula withdraws with injury
Kasatkina is stepping in at the eleventh hour after Gauff's compatriot, No. 6 Jessica Pegula, withdrew from the competition with a left knee injury on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old Pegula, who was already eliminated from advancing after falling 6-3, 6-3 to Krejčíková on Tuesday, has nursed the injury since before the WTA Finals began.
"What started as a really small issue flared over the last two matches and I just can’t continue tomorrow," Pegula tweeted. "I’m sorry to the fans and tournament. I really had a great week of prep and had high hopes here but it just wasn’t meant to be."
How to watch Coco Gauff at Thursday's WTA Finals
Świątek and Kasatkina will kick off the final group-stage day at the 2024 WTA Finals at 7:30 AM ET, with Gauff taking on Krejčíková at 10 AM ET. Both matches will air live on the Tennis Channel.
The year's final major tennis tournament begins on Saturday when the sport's highest-ranked athletes descend on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to compete in the 2024 WTA Finals.
Featuring the eight best singles players and eight best doubles teams, Slam winners and Olympic medalists alike will compete for the Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova trophies before the winter break.
Also up for grabs is a piece of the record $15.25 million prize pool, larger than any Grand Slam purse and a nearly 70% increase over the 2023 pot. Should the champions go undefeated through the tournament, the singles winner will bank $5.155 million, while the top doubles duo will take home $1.125 million.
Eight days of elite tennis action
In both the WTA Finals singles and doubles categories, competitors are split into two groups of four.
Each singles player or doubles pair will play all others in their group for a total of three matches across the first six days. The top two in each group will then compete in the November 8th semifinals, with both finals set for November 9th.
In the singles contest, the Purple Group includes No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 4 Jasmine Paolini, No. 5 Elena Rybakina, and No. 7 Qinwen Zheng, while the Orange Group lists No. 2 Iga Świątek, No. 3 Coco Gauff, No. 6 Jessica Pegula, and No. 8 Barbora Krejčíková.
In both competitions, 25% of the top eight athletes represent the USA. Along with Gauff and Pegula on the singles court, the doubles tournament includes No. 5 US duo Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk as well as Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Taylor Townsend in the Nos. 6 and 8 pairs, respectively.
Will Sabalenka play Świątek at the WTA Finals?
A showdown between Sabalenka and 2023 WTA Finals champion Świątek could be the event's blockbuster match. The top-ranked players have yet to square off in a major tournament in 2024 — a year rife with highs and lows for both athletes.
Sabalenka started the WTA season by winning her second Australian Open, then later struggled through a shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon. She capped the Grand Slam season in style, though, winning her first US Open in September.
As for five-time Grand Slam victor Świątek, 2024 brought the Polish phenom her fourth French Open title. A rockier second half to the season — including a third round and quarterfinal ousting from Wimbledon and the US Open, and a fall from the No. 1 ranking for the first time since November 2023 — motivated Świątek to seek a new coach.
How to watch the 2024 WTA Finals tennis tournament
The 2024 WTA Finals kicks off on Saturday, when US Open winner Sabalenka plays 2024 Olympic gold medalist Zheng at 11 AM ET.
Later, 2023 US Open champ Gauff will take on 2024 US Open runner-up Pegula at 8:45 AM ET on Sunday.
All 2024 WTA Finals matches will be broadcast live on the Tennis Channel.
In her first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal victory, No. 6-seed Jessica Pegula knocked No. 1 Iga Świątek out of the 2024 US Open in straight sets Wednesday night.
Now in uncharted territory, the US tennis star will aim at extending her historic run in tonight's semifinal against unseeded Czech opponent, Karolina Muchová.
Quarterfinal victory proved Pegula's dominance
The 30-year-old Pegula, who has yet to drop a set all tournament, took control of yesterday's match immediately, winning the first game on Świątek's serve — the five-time Grand Slam winner's first broken serve in 26 games.
Świątek, the 2022 US Open champion, committed 18 unforced errors in the first set. Visibly frustrated with her performance, the Polish phenom retreated to the locker room to regroup — a move that ultimately proved unsuccessful in the wake of Pegula's relentless 6-2, 6-4 victory.
After six previous Grand Slam quarterfinal attempts, Pegula celebrated, telling the crowd post-match that "there have been so many freaking times, and I just kept losing.... So thank God I was able to do it. And finally — finally! — I can say, 'Semifinalist.'"
Two US contenders will feature in tonight's semis
Pegula isn't the only contender making her Grand Slam semifinal debut tonight. Before Pegula takes the court, fellow US player No. 13 Emma Navarro will take on reigning back-to-back Australian Open champion No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka, who fell to US star Coco Gauff in last year's US Open, hopes for better luck against Navarro — the player who ousted the No. 3 defending champ last weekend.
If both Pegula and Navarro emerge victorious, Saturday's US Open final would be the first contested by two US athletes since Sloane Stephens defeated Madison Keys for the 2017 title. It would also pit two New York locals against each other on their home Grand Slam court: Pegula hails from Buffalo, NY, while Navarro was born in NYC.
How to watch the 2024 US Open semifinals
Navarro and Sabalenka will kick off tonight's Grand Slam action at 7 PM ET, with Pegula's match against Muchová immediately following. Both semis will air on ESPN.
With the US Open's first round coming to a close, both surprise performances and expected wins headlined the season's final Grand Slam heading into today's second round.
Naomi Osaka pulls off stunning upset with US Open win
Looking decidedly dangerous, 2020 US Open champ Naomi Osaka — a wild card entry at 88th in the world — beat No. 10 Jeļena Ostapenko in straight sets on Tuesday.
After stepping away for mental health reasons and the birth of her daughter, yesterday marked Osaka’s first top-10 win in over four years.
"Last year, I was watching Coco play, and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again and I didn’t know if I could," an emotional Osaka told reporters after the victory. "Just to win this match and to be in this atmosphere means so much to me."
Other past US Open champions see mixed results
Joining Osaka in the second round are fellow US Open winners Iga Świątek (2022) and Coco Gauff (2023). No. 3 Gauff aced her first match 6-2, 6-0 on Monday, but No. 1 Świątek faced a tougher challenge from Russian Kamilla Rakhimova on Tuesday.
The Polish phenom made 41 unforced errors, coming dangerously close to a forced third set before a tiebreaker allowed Świątek to continue her hunt for a sixth Grand Slam title.
Other past US Open champs weren’t so lucky, with 2019's Bianca Andreescu and 2021's Emma Raducanu joining 2017's Sloane Stephens on the ousted list.
Retiring Danielle Collins exits final Grand Slam singles tournament
While most of the 32 seeded singles players survived round one, US star Danielle Collins's run ended on Tuesday. Coming off a solid fourth-round Wimbledon exit, the world No. 11 fell to No. 49 Caroline Dolehide 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, despite defeating the fellow US pro in five of their six previous meetings.
Collins, who announced her plan to retire after this season in January, suffered an abdominal injury at the Olympics that saw her miss the Toronto and Cincinnati US Open tune-ups.
The tennis season’s final Grand Slam gets underway today, when the US Open takes the hardcourt in Queens, New York. Topping last year’s record-setting prize pool by $10 million, this year’s $75 million purse means the singles champion will walk away with $3.6 million.
Led by Gauff, US women chase history
With 21 US women in this year's draw — including five ranked in the WTA’s Top 15 — domestic fans are eyeing another trophy after world No. 3 Coco Gauff became the first US teen since 1999 to win the Slam last year. This time around, Gauff is hunting more history: If she repeats, she’ll become the first back-to-back US title-winner since Serena Williams’s 2012-14 three-peat.
That said, Gauff's recent early exits from Wimbledon, the Olympics, and last week’s Cincinnati Open have placed other stars in the US Open spotlight.
A US player has yet to feature in a Grand Slam final in 2024, and contenders like world No. 6 Jessica Pegula, No. 11 Danielle Collins, and No. 14 Madison Keys are all looking to right that ship.
Top stars aim to avoid more 2024 upsets
In a season rife with upsets — from No. 26 Leylah Annie Fernandez beating No. 4 Elena Rybakina in Cincinnati to No. 24 Donna Vekić ousting Gauff at the Olympics — this Slam is anyone’s to take.
After missing Wimbledon and the Olympics, reigning Australian Open champ No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka is this year's favorite after falling to Gauff in the 2023 final, though No. 1 Iga Świątek could pose a problem in Sabalenka's hunt. The Polish phenom already knows how to win this Slam, having taken the 2022 US Open trophy. If victorious again, the 23-year-old will have six major titles to her name.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's No. 4 Elena Rybakina will aim to break her US Open curse of falling by the Round of 32, but a season wracked with illness, early exits, and personnel trouble could set her off course.
The field could also see a fresh face like Buffalo product Pegula or China’s 2024 Olympic gold medalist No. 7 Qinwen Zheng lifting hardware at Arthur Ashe next month.
How to watch the US Open
The 2024 US Open's main draw kicks off today at 11 AM ET, with live coverage across ABC and ESPN networks.
Few high-ranked seeds remain standing as Wimbledon caps off the Round of 16, with the Grand Slam's grass surface proving itself a great equalizer.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and World No. 2 Coco Gauff suffered upsets in the third and fourth rounds respectively, while No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from play with a shoulder injury. Both of last year's finalists are also out, with 2023 champion Markéta Vondroušová falling early in the tournament alongside 2023 runner-up Ons Jabeur.
This year's competition has seen impressive performances from several former college athletes — a point of interest in a sport where many skip school in favor of immediately going pro.
Texas alum Lulu Sun upset Emma Raducanu on Sunday, with UVA grad Emma Navarro beating Gauff that same day. Navarro will join Gauff later this month as part of the US Olympic tennis team, punching her ticket after Madison Keys withdrew from the event.
World No. 4 and 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina is the highest-ranked seed still on the schedule this year. 2024 French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini has also kept up her run of form, advancing to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal after Sunday's victory over Madison Keys.
Wimbledon will begin on Monday, with French Open-winner Iga Swiatek looking to take her first grass court major title.
Others looking to challenge her include Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, Ons Jabeur, and 2023 Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrousova.
Grass isn't the strongest surface for some of the world’s heaviest hitters, including Swiatek, Gauff, and Sabalenka. Jabeur, meanwhile, will be looking to win her first Grand Slam singles title after falling short in last year’s final.
But the tournament’s proximity to the Paris Olympics — combined with the fact that the Olympics will be played on clay courts — has resulted in a number of key players dropping out of the Summer Games.
Sabalenka, Jabeur, and American Madison Keys are among a group of top players declining to participate in the Summer Games, citing health and fitness concerns in relation to a tight schedule played on multiple surfaces.
"We have decided that the quick change of surface and the body’s adaptation required would put my knee at risk and jeopardize the rest of my season," Jabeur posted on social media regarding her Olympic withdrawal.
"It’s too much with the scheduling," Sabalenka echoed. "It’s just too much. I made the decision to take care of my health."
Both Swiatek and Gauff, who excel on clay courts, are still planning to participate this summer in Paris.
Iga Swiatek continues to dominate the French Open, winning a third-straight title on Saturday.
The world No. 1 defeated Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 in straight sets, with Paolini playing in her first-ever Grand Slam final.
"To play [Swiatek] here is something different," Paolini said. "She's already won four titles at 23-years-old — these numbers are not normal. I've never played someone with this intensity before in my life."
Swiatek is just the third woman to win three straight titles at the Paris major, alongside Monica Seles and Justine Henin. It’s also her fourth title at the tournament in five years, as well as her fifth major overall.
She’s 5-0 when reaching the final of a major tournament, dropping just 17 games since her second-round scare against Naomi Osaka last week. And her win streak at the French Open now spans 21 matches, dating back to 2021.
"I got broken at the beginning, so it wasn't maybe perfect, but I think the level was pretty high," Swiatek said after the match. "It wasn't so easy as the score says."
Elsewhere, new singles World No. 2 Coco Gauff won her first Grand Slam doubles title on Sunday, playing alongside Katerina Siniakova at Roland Garros. It’s her second major tournament title after winning the US Open in singles in 2023.
The French Open final is set, with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek set to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
Swiatek took care of top-ranked American Coco Gauff in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 in Thursday's French Open semifinal. Afterward, Swiatek expressed high praise for Gauff's performance.
"She is progressing a lot. You can see by her results. Last year's US Open, for sure, showed that she's tough. At this age, it's kind of obvious that she's going to just grow. So it's nice to see her handling well everything around her, because it's not easy," Swiatek noted. "I'm sure we're going to have plenty more really intense matches on the really highest level."
For Gauff, the tournament isn’t a total loss. She’ll move up to a personal best world No. 2 this week after 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva upset former No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open to become the youngest major semifinalist since 1997.
Gauff will now be the first American tennis player — male or female — to be ranked inside the top two since Serena Williams in 2017.
The French Open semifinals will feature a familiar battle, with Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek set to square off on Thursday.
Gauff mounted a comeback win against Ons Jabeur in this morning's quarterfinal match, winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, while Swiatek easily took care of Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2.
"She was playing really well the whole match. She was hitting a lot of winners on me, which is something I'm not used to against anybody," Gauff said after the match. "So today I was just trying to just be aggressive toward the end.
"[Ons Jabeur] is a tough opponent and she's well loved on tour," she added. "I could tell by the crowd today — I know you guys wanted her to win. Honestly, whenever she's not playing [me], I cheer for her, too.”
It's Gauff's third semi in three consecutive majors, with Gauff and Swiatek the only two active players under 26 with more than two Grand Slam semifinals under their belts.
Gauff and Swiatek have met at the French Open before, having most recently faced each other in the tournament's 2022 final. But Swiatek has took 10 out of 11 matches against Gauff — including a 6-4, 6-3 win in the semifinals of the Italian Open last month.
"Coco is not easy. She really likes playing on clay, especially here," Swiatek told ESPN after today's quarterfinals. "I'll just focus on myself and I'll prepare tactically and we'll see."
For her part, Swiatek is looking for her fourth French Open title and fifth Grand Slam overall.
Some have started calling the 23-year-old the "Queen of Clay" — a moniker she hasn't been quick to embrace.
"I think it is too early for me… Comparing me to [Rafael Nadal], I don't think I am at that level yet. I still have many things to prove," Swiatek said late last month.