Wuhan | Gauff beats Pegula to take WTA 1000 title

Coco Gauff won the WTA 1000 Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open title on Sunday, beating Jessica Pegula 6-4 7-5 in the all-American final after an hour and 43 minute battle.

When I went on tour, you were one of the first people who were nice to me and welcomed me with open arms. That really has come a long way, so I appreciate you. It’s great to finally play against you in the final, and I hope for many more. So congratulations and thank you. Coco Gauff

“This definitely gives me a lot more confidence going into the WTA finals after how the middle of the season went for me, especially in New York,” Gauff told the media afterwards. “It gives me a lot of confidence to try to defend that title.

“Obviously, from winning last year, I know how hard it is to do, so I’m just going to take it one game at a time and hopefully I can get the trophy in the end.”

The 21-year-old Gauff did not drop a set in Wuhan and has now won all 9 finals on hard court.

“I definitely think this is the surface I am most loyal to,” the two-time Grand Slam winner added. “Growing up, I loved the security of bouncing, and the security of knowing when I’m going to stop and when I’m going to go.

“A lot of people think [my best surface] is clay. I don’t know my favorite surface. I feel like it will still be a hard court for me.

In lifting the trophy in Wuhan, Gauff claimed her 11th WTA singles title and her first since winning the French Open in June, which came after a string of uninspired performances including a fourth-round defeat to Naomi Osaka at the US Open.

Two years after sharing the WTA 1000 doubles title in Miami, Gauff and Pegula met for the first time in a singles final, and the younger American knew she couldn’t let her 31-year-old opponent take the lead in a third set.

“You are the queen of the three sets,” she told Pegula at the awards ceremony. “So I was determined not to let you get there today because it felt like the odds were going to be in your favor in the third set.”

Gauff’s passage to the finals began with a second-round victory over Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, dropping just one game in 51 minutes, while in the third round she needed just an hour to get past Zhang Shuai, a Chinese wildcard, before losing three games to Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the quarterfinals.

The competition intensified in the semi-final against Jasmine Paolini, who had beaten Gauff three times this season and was fresh off a dominant victory over Iga Swiatek, but the world number three dismissed the Italian at short notice to reach the final.

Pegula, meanwhile, came into the match having played 8 straight 3-setters, winning 7 and gaining match points in all 8, so Gauff knew she couldn’t let the championship match go all the way.

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The final started with a 15-shot rally, which Gauff capped with a forehand winner down the line, winning the first of six straight points as she raced to a 3-0 and then 4-1 lead.

Pegula responded with three straight games to tie the set at 4, but Gauff held on.

A cross-court backhand helped Gauff survive a tense service game to go up 5-4, allowing her to break Pegula in the next game and take the set.

In the second, Pegula took the lead, 3–0, putting Gauff on the defensive, but when faced with a potential 4–0 deficit, Gauff dug in and came to the net to cap an 8-shot rally with a stunning winner, then reeled off three games in a row to level the set at 3–3.

Down 4–5 with Pegula serving for the set, Gauff broke again, and after winning the first point of the match, outlasted the sixth seed in a 12-shot rally, finishing with a backhand down the line to seal the penultimate break.

Gauff captured her 4th break of the set in the final game and closed the match with her 4th game on the trot with a final forehand winner, her 24th, which was 11 more than Pegula, and 2 more than her unforced error count.

With her straight sets victory in the final, Gauff became the first player to win the Wuhan Open without dropping a set since the tournament’s inception in 2014, while also losing just 25 matches en route to the title, the fewest by any champion in the tournament’s history.

During the trophy presentation, Gauff thanked Pegula for her support at the start of her career.

“When I came on tour, you were one of the first people who was nice to me and welcomed me with open arms,” Gauff said. “That really took us far, so I appreciate you. It’s great to finally play against you in the final, and I hope for many more. So congratulations and thank you.”

Gauff leaves Wuhan with a new title and also has bragging rights over her friend, even though she still trails Pegula 4-3 in the head-to-head.

She remains in third place in the PIF WTA rankings, but widens the gap to her nearest competitor, Amanda Anisimova, to almost 2,000 points, while also regaining third place in the race, overtaking Anisimova.

Wuhan champion Coco Gauff poses next to Jessica Pegula with their trophies during the presentation ceremony at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center in Wuhan, China

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Looking ahead, Gauff and Pegula will both get one more chance to win a major title this season at the WTA Finals in Riyadh in early November.

If Gauff wins, she will not only defend her title from last year, but she will also finish the season with at least one Grand Slam, one WTA 1000 singles title, one WTA 1000 doubles title and a win at the WTA Finals.

Her run in Wuhan increased her points total by 610 points after she reached the semi-finals at last year’s edition of the tournament, leaving Gauff at 7,873 points in the live rankings after starting the event with 7,263 points.

The American is now 895 points behind second-placed Swiatek after being 1,290 points behind her Polish rival at the start of the tournament, but Gauff cannot claim the world number 2 position before the end of the 2025 season.

Swiatek, the six-time Grand Slam champion who did not defend any points this week because she missed Wuhan last year, improved her total by 215 points as she reached the quarter-finals here.

Both have one tournament left on their 2025 calendar, the WTA Finals in Riyadh, which will take place from November 1 to 8, where Gauff will defend 1,300 points since securing the title last year when she won four of her five matches.

Even if Gauff were to complete an undefeated title in Riyadh, where 1,500 points are up for grabs, it would only increase her total by 200 points, which wouldn’t be enough to catch Swiatek, and that’s without taking into account the 24-year-old Pole’s results.

Swiatek is defending 400 points from last year’s WTA Finals, winning two of her three round robin matches, but she did not reach the semi-finals.

Katerina Siniakova & Storm Hunter won the Wuhan Open doubles title after beating Anna Danilina & Aleksandra Krunic in Sunday’s final

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In doubles, Storm Hunter reunited with Katerina Siniakova to take the Wuhan title as the Aussie-Czech duo defeated Kazakh Anna Danilina and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic 6-3 6-2 in the 69-minute final on Sunday.

Hunter & Siniakova dominated from the start of the week, opening with a 6-1 6-0 win over Americans, Pegula & Ashlyn Krueger, and advancing to the quarter-finals via walkover as Belgium’s Elise Mertens & Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, the No. 2 seeds, withdrew.

They dropped just nine games between the quarter-finals and semi-finals, including a 6-3 6-0 win over Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Great Britain’s Olivia Nicholls to reach the final.

There the result was never really in question as Hunter & Siniakova broke out early for a 2-1 lead and closed out the first set in just over 30 minutes.

Danilina & Krunic briefly rallied to lead 2–0 in the second, but Hunter & Siniakova stormed back to win the next six matches and capture their third trophy together.

Wuhan doubles champions Katerina Siniakova & Storm Hunter pose with runner-up Anna Danilina (2R) & Aleksandra Krunic after the final

© Adek Berry/AFP via Getty Images

Hunter reached world number 1 for the first time in April 2024, winning her 4th WTA 1000 doubles title in Dubai alongside Siniakova, the pair had also reached the final in Indian Wells that same year, but misfortune struck when Hunter ruptured her Achilles tendon during practice ahead of Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier against Mexico, and a surgery followed, which sidelined her for almost twelve months.

Although her comeback has produced steady results, rising from No. 1,502 in doubles, title victories had eluded her until this week, when Hunter contacted Siniakova, hoping to reunite in Wuhan.

In their first tournament together in 19 months, they picked up where they left off at Indian Wells, although this time they did even better, winning the title.

“Thank you, Kat, for saying yes to playing with me,” Hunter said during the trophy presentation. “I was very happy to play together again after such a long time. You are a great player.”

“You are number 1 in the world for a reason, but also a good friend. I had so much fun with you on the pitch this week, so thank you for saying yes. I can’t believe we won the title.”

The title is Hunter’s first since returning from injury, and the 9th WTA doubles title of her career, including 5 WTA 1000s, while she also won the US Open mixed doubles title in 2022 with compatriot John Peers, and was a Wimbledon finalist in 2023 with Mertens.

For Siniakova it is her second WTA 1000 title of the season, after winning Dubai with Taylor Townsend earlier this year, and it is her fourth title of 2025 in total.

The current world number 1 now has 32 WTA doubles titles, including 10 Grand Slams, 6 WTA 1000s, a gold medal and a WTA Finals, while alongside Sem Verbeek she also owns a Wimbledon mixed doubles title from earlier this year, another gold medal in mixed doubles and 5 singles titles.

Siniakova now extends her lead over Townsend in the race for the season’s No. 1 spot, now holding an almost 800-point advantage over the American.

Together the two already secured a place in the WTA Finals in Riyadh in November.