Washington, United States—US teen Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old who electrified Wimbledon with a fourth-round singles run last month, captured her first WTA title Saturday (Sunday Philippine time) at the Washington Open in women’s doubles.
Gauff and partner Catherine McNally, who combined to win last year’s US Open junior women’s doubles title, defeated Hungary’s Fanny Stollar and American Maria Sanchez 6-2, 6-2 to hoist their inaugural WTA trophy.
The teens jumped into each other’s arms and later hugged in celebration of the breakthrough milestone triumph.
Gauff electrified Wimbledon after her qualifying run by defeating idol Venus Williams in her opening match and rolled into the fourth round before losing to eventual champion Simona Halep.
At the time Gauf said the experience felt like a dream. “It has been a big change. People recognize me in the airport, at the movie theater. It’s great people recognized who I am. It was definitely a big change,” Gauf said.
Gauf made her WTA main draw debut in March at the Miami Open, ousted 44th-ranked Williams in round one at Wimbledon, then dispatched Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova and saved two match points in defeating Slovenia’s 60th-ranked Polona Hercog before falling to Romania’s Halep.
Gauf said she learned a lot from Wimbledon as a player and a person. But most of all the experienced meant a lot her as Coco the person.
“I learned I’m capable of doing things I never thought of and that I have a fighting spirit. It taught me a lot about myself and showed I’ll fight no matter what,” Gauf said.
Gauff, in her first post-Wimbledon singles appearance, qualified for the Washington main draw but lost her first match 6-4, 6-2 to Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas.
McNally, a 17-year-old American who made only her fourth WTA appearance in singles, took her first three tour match wins to reach the semi-finals, where she lost 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 on Saturday to Italy’s Camila Giorgi.
