Coco Gauff secured glory at the WTA Finals with a stunning comeback victory against Zheng Qinwen in an epic three-hour championship match.
The American star dropped the first set before bouncing back in style with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) win at the season-ending tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Gauff has been in fine form in recent weeks, and her first WTA Finals title is the perfect end to a year that saw her split with former coach Brad Gilbert and hire Matt Daly in his place.
The change sparked instant success, with a win at the China Open in October, which was her second title of the year.
She arrived in Saudi Arabia with newfound confidence, and set a number of records as the tournament unfolded.
During an impressive WTA Finals run, Gauff upset World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the last four, as well as Iga Swiatek – ranked second in the world – during the group stage.
She became the youngest player to make the championship match since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010, and the youngest to beat a No. 1 ranked star since Sharapova defeated Lindsay Davenport in 2004.
Gauff capped the tournament with an epic win against Zheng in a championship match that secured her first WTA Finals title in her third appearance.
Zheng took the first set in what was a tight battle, but the American bounced back in the second to send the final to a third set.
Both players exchanged breaks in the decider, with momentum swinging throughout.
Unsurprisingly, it went right down to the wire.
After breaking Zheng to pull it back to 5-5 – having been two points from defeat – Gauff held her next service game to take the advantage.
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But the Olympic champion battled back from two championship points to make it 6-6, sending the final to a tie-break.
With everything on the line, Gauff was able to dig deeper than she has ever done before to take a 6-0 lead.
And she never looked back, closing out the tie-break 7-2 as the match entered its fourth hour to secure a stunning victory.
Not only did Gauff take the title with a win over Zheng, but she walked away with a record amount of prize money too.
The young star will take home a massive $4,805,000 after winning the championship – the largest cheque in the history of women’s professional tennis.
By making the final after going 2-1 in round-robin play, both players had already earned $2,305,000 each in prize money.
Champion Gauff then added an additional $2.5m with her hard-fought win over the Olympic champion, bringing her total take to $4.8m.
“It was a great match, I was just trying my best to hang in there and never give up,” Gauff said, as she walked off the court a newly-crowned champion.
