‘They told me not to say anything’ – Coco Gauff went against WTA protocol with slip of the tongue

Coco Gauff will compete in the WTA Finals, but decided to announce the news herself before it was made official.

Only eight spots are available for the season-ending tournament, which will be staged in Saudi Arabia for the first time next month.

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Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, the top two ranked players in the world, were the only two officially announced for competition as the Wuhan Open concluded over the weekend.

But Gauff, the world No 3, took it upon herself to break the news of her qualification during a press conference after her semi-final defeat to Sabalenka in China.

“I saw that I qualified on the ranking race,” she told journalists, drawing laughter.

“Oops, they said they didn’t announce it yet. If you look it up online, there’s a checkmark by my name.

“They told me not to say anything. Sorry. But it’s by my name. You can look it up.”

While it wasn’t officially announced at the time, Gauff collected enough points to qualify for the WTA Finals with her run to the semis at Wuhan.

Given the tournaments and points remaining on offer, it wouldn’t be possible for enough players to overtake the 20-year-old for her to find herself outside of the elite eight.

After a slip of the tongue, the WTA finally announced on Monday, 14 October, that Gauff and three other players had qualified for the tournament.

Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula have also booked their spots, leaving only two spaces open on the Race to Riyadh.

Gauff can now officially celebrate her third straight WTA Finals qualification and will be hoping to win the tournament for the first time in 2024.

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Her best result came last year when she reached the semi-finals and the young star also has doubles experience at the event, after qualifying in 2022 and 2023 with compatriot Pegula.

The WTA Finals offers Gauff a chance to end a tough year on a high.

Two tournament wins – the Auckland Open in January and China Open earlier this month – helped the American book her spot at the season-ending event.

But Gauff was less successful in the Grand Slams, crashing out of the US Open and Wimbledon in the fourth round, and losing in the semi-finals at the Australian and French Open.

Her struggles were summed up during a defeat to Emma Navarro in New York, where Gauff double-faulted 19 times.

That performance was followed by an astonishing 21 double faults in her Wuhan Open defeat to Sabalenka, sparking Serena Williams’ former coach to offer some advice on fixing the issue.

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Rick Macci, who worked with five world No1-ranked players during his coaching career, also wrote on X: “Coco and her second serve can be fixed in less than one hour.

“Once that is biomechanically rewired and that is in the eye of the beholder, the mental game overall becomes bolder.”

Williams herself also commented on Gauff’s consistent unforced errors and double faults, saying on ESPN: “I feel like she has a good serve.

“I think that it can obviously be better, but I feel like she’s so young.

“She has the rest of her career to just improve. I wouldn’t change anything on her forehand.

“I’ve seen a lot of interesting forehands. And listen, if you’re just confident in whatever you have, keep it up, and just be confident about it.

“That’s literally all she needs to do is just have confidence, whether she’s hitting it with her wrist or elbow. Just have confidence doing it.”

If Gauff can put her serving woes behind her in Saudi Arabia, she has the opportunity to finish 2024 the way she started – with a big win.