The 7 American women to beat world No 1 and No 2 at same event as Coco Gauff achieves feat: Serena Williams tops list…. Continue Reading

Coco Gauff has joined the list of American women to defeat the top two players in the WTA Rankings at the same event while she is also the youngest player since Maria Sharapova in 2006 to achieve the feat.

The 20-year-old Gauff defeated world No 2 Iga Swiatek 6–3, 6–4 in her second group match at the WTA Finals on Tuesday and she followed it up with another impressive 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 over world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final in Riyadh.

With the win she became the youngest WTA Finals finalist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010 while she is now also the youngest woman since a 19-year-old Maria Sharapova to beat the top two players at the same event.

Back in 2006, Sharapova defeated world No 1 Amelie Mauresmo in the semi-final of the US Open before downing No 2 Justine Henin in the final.

Before Gauff, Elena Rybakina was the most recent player to beat the No 1 and No 2 at the same event as the Kazakh player did it at the 2023 Indian Wells Open when she beat Swiatek (No 1) and Sabalenka (No 2) in back-to-back matches.

Gauff is also the youngest to defeat the world No 1 and No 2 at the WTA Finals since Kim Clijsters beat Serena and Venus Williams in 2002.

She will face Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen for the title on Saturday and the will take home a cheque of $4,805,000,

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Gauff is the seventh American woman to claim wins over the top two players at the same tournament since 1975.

The 2023 US Open winner joins Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati in joint-fifth as they also notched up the achievement once while the great Martina Navratilova did it twice and Tracy Austin three times.

Venus Williams is second on the list as she achieved it four times while sister Serena Williams is top as she achieved the feat eight times.

23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams beat the top two players in the rankings for the first time at the 1999 US Open when she defeated Lindsay Davenport (2) in the semi-final and Martina Hingis (1) in the final.

She last achieved it at the 2012 WTA Finals when she defeated Victoria Azarenka (1) in the group stage and Maria Sharapova (2) in the final.

The 7 American women to beat the world No 1 and world No 2 at the same event: