AMERICAN young gun Coco Gauff has secured her place in the WTA Finals knockout stages with a straight sets victory over world number two Iga Swiatek, securing Aryna Sabalenka as the year’s end world number one in the process. Gauff won 6-3 6-4 to ensure progression through to the semi-finals, defying history against the Polish star.

Coming into the clash the pair had met a dozen times, with Gauff winning just one of those clashes. However given the form the 20-year-old had taken into Riyadh and the lack of matchplay for Swiatek – having not stepped foot on Tour since the US Open heading into the WTA Finals – the former proved too sharp, getting up in an hour and 48 minutes.

The victory meant Gauff is guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals, and will take on Barbora Krejcikova on Thursday to determine if she will be the Orange Group winner. For Swiatek, she must defeat Jessica Pegula in order to advance to the knockout stages, but cannot win the group which means a showdown with the player who took her world number one place – Sabalenka – if that occurs.

Swiatek is the defending champion at the WTA Finals, having won at Cancun 12 months ago as world number one, and Gauff grabbed her own slice of history to become the youngest player to reach back-to-back semi-finals at the event since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009-10, and the youngest American in more than four decades.

While Gauff came away with the victory, her serving yips plagued her once again, serving a whopping 11 double faults for just two aces, but when her serve went in – 61 per cent of the time – she won two thirds of her first serve points, as well as 43 per cent of her second serve points. By comparison, Swiatek served at a higher clip (67 per cent) but could not maximise Gauff’s inconsistency with just 50 per cent of her first serve points.

The Pole created eight break points but only converted two, while Gauff produced 12 opportunities for herself, breaking the world number two five times during the match, which ultimately enabled her to secure the win without having to go too deep in either set.

Wimbledon champ stays alive; eliminates Pegula

In the other Orange Group match, Krejcikova justified her place at the WTA Finals with a 70-minute rout over American sixth seed Jessica Pegula to keep her dreams of an unlikely crown alive. In what was even more one-sided than Swiatek and Gauff’s clash, the eighth seed raced through her second group match to win 6-3 6-3 to face Gauff for the chance to qualify.

The Czech – who surprisingly is not playing doubles this year having won the event with compatriot Katerina Siniakova in 2021 and finished runner-up in both 2018 and 2022 – is ranked 13th in the world but earned her place at the prestigious event after winning at the All-England club. The loser due to that scenario was eighth ranked American Emma Navarro, but Krejcikova made sure she took the opportunity with both hands and now has the chance to make the final four.

In the match itself, Krejcikova powered down 11 aces and won 75 per cent of her first serve points off a 67 per cent clip, winning the same percentage off Pegula’s second serve and breaking four times to one throughout the straight sets win.

“I’m extremely happy to win my first match at the WTA Finals, finally after some time,” Krejcikova said post-match. “I think the match today was tough. “There were a lot of moments where it could shift any way. “I’m super happy with the outcome.”

The Purple Group’s second semi-finalist will be decided overnight with Italian fourth seed Jasmine Paolini and seventh seed Qinwen Zheng clashing having both lost to Sabalenka, but beaten Elena Rybakina. Already with the year’s end number one in the bag and a spot in the semi-finals secured, Sabalenka is essentially just looking to go through the group undefeated.

On Thursday, Swiatek takes on Pegula first up, with the former needing to win to secure her spot in the final four, before Gauff and Krejcikova face off which if the first equation happens means the second match is a live contest.