FORT WORTH, Texas — Eight of the best women's tennis players in the world will descend on North Texas for the 2022 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, including Americans Coco Gauff (No. 4 ranked) and Jessica Pegula (No. 3 ranked).
The WTA Finals is coming to Fort Worth's Dickies Arena for the first time ever and will be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7. WFAA spoke with Gauff ahead of the event – which will mark her WTA Finals debut. It'll be the 18-year-old tennis star's first time visiting Fort Worth, but not the Lone Star State. Gauff said she's come to Dallas and Austin before.
"So, this is my first time in Fort Worth and I'm super excited," Gauff said. "I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do, but obviously, for sure I'll get some good food over here in Texas. Some nice country food and I got some cowboys boots ... you know live my inner country that I have a tiny bit [of] in me."
Gauff will be the youngest competitor since Maria Sharapova in 2005 and the youngest American in nearly 30 years when Lindsay Davenport finished runner-up in 1994.
Joining Gauff will be her American counterpart and doubles partner Jessica Pegula. Gauff and Pegula are the first Americans to compete in both singles and doubles at the WTA Finals since Serena and Venus Williams in 2009.
"It was kind of crazy how it all happened. I've known Jess, she's a fellow American and lives in South Florida, but I never really spoke to her or anything. Just briefly hello and stuff," Gauff said. "Then we played more tournaments together and we actually tried to pair up in 2020 in Abu Dhabi and we lost. Then finally, in Dubai we got to the quarters and then Doha, we won."
Gauff went on to say Pegula is a player she looks up to in terms of being even-keeled off the court. Gauff joked that, unlike Pegula, she can at times be "up and down" with her emotions.
Gauff and Pegula join a competitive singles field, which features WTA World No.1 ranked Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur, Maria Sakkari, Caroline Garcia, Aryna Sabalenka and Daria Kasatkina.
In the doubles tournament, Gauff and Pegula are pitted against these teams:
- Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova
- Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens
- Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos
- Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko
- Yang Zhaoxuan and Xu Yifan
- Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs
- Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia
The WTA was founded by tennis legend Billie Jean King on the principle of equal opportunity in the sport. Now, nearly 50 years later, the WTA is one of the biggest tennis tournaments in the world outside of the four majors: Wimbledon, U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open. For more about the history of the WTA, click here.
The WTA Finals have typically been held in China, but the WTA announced the move to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth after Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis player, accused a high-ranking member of the China communist party of sexual assault.
For Gauff, making her WTA Finals debut on American soil is a special experience. The WTA Finals has not been held in the U.S. since 2005 in Los Angeles.
"When they announced the location, I was really happy to see it was in the U.S.," Gauff said. "I'm just happy that I can play another tournament in the U.S. Whenever I can play at home, it helps me more mentally because A. the travel, and B. you know that you're going to have crowd support."
Tickets are on sale now for the WTA Finals. Prices range from $20 to $300 and are on sale online for each day of the tournament here.
For a look at the rest of the 2022 WTA tour calendar, click here.
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