Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula qualify for WTA Finals in doubles
Two for two: A day after Jessica Pegula officially punched her ticket to the season-ending WTA Finals in singles, she's headed there in doubles with fellow American Coco Gauff.
By reaching the semifinals at this week's San Diego Open, Gauff and Pegula secured their berth as the fifth team in the Finals, which begin on Oct. 31 in Fort Worth, Texas. They join Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova; Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos, Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko; and Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens in the field so far.
The team of Gauff and Pegula is the first all-American duo to qualify for the WTA Finals since 2015 (Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears), and are bidding to be the first players from the United States win the event, and the trophy that's named in honor of the legendary Martina Navratilova, since Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in 2011.
Gauff and Pegula have won two titles in 2022, triumphing at the WTA 1000 event in Toronto and WTA 500 event in Doha to date, and also finished as the runners-up at Roland Garros.
Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images.
By virtue of the pair's win in Toronto, Gauff became the world No. 1 in doubles and the second-youngest player in WTA history to earn the doubles No. 1 ranking since the honor was introduced on Sept. 10, 1984. She spent three weeks in the top spot.
Pegula is assured of being the first American to compete in both singles and doubles at the WTA Finals since both since Serena and Venus Williams did so in 2009, and Gauff could join her in the coming weeks. The 18-year-old currently sits fourth in the Race to the WTA Finals, and could secure her position on the strength of results of the year's final WTA 1000 event, which begins next week in Guadalajara, Mexico. Eight other players have played in both singles and doubles at the year-end championships dating back to 2004.
“It’s a huge achievement for me in both singles and doubles,” Pegula told the WTA's Greg Garber on the back of her achievement, “and to do it with another American is really cool. I’m just super-happy. It’s paying off, all my hard work and all the matches I’ve played this year. It’s been a long year, and it’s just a great reward.”
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