Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula cap off dream run with doubles triumph in Doha
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Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula
All-American pair of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lifted their maiden team title at the Qatar Open. The unseeded pair stunned 3rd seeded duo of Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens in the finals to clinch the title at the WTA 1000 event in Doha.
The American duo were only playing their 4th tournament together but had a stellar run to the finals. Gauff/Pegula upset the 6th seeded pair of Ostapenko/Kichenok and the 2nd seeded pair of Shibahara/ Zhang en route to the finals. In the summit clash, they had to peg back from a set down to prevail over Kudermetova/Mertens 3-6, 7-5, 10-5.
Gauff has been making her mark as a top doubles player in recent times. The 17-year-old was the runner at the US Open last year and has already won 3 WTA doubles titles prior to her win in Doha. But the Qatar Open was the biggest title of her doubles career so far, all her previous victories were at WTA 250 tournaments. As for Pegula, this was her second title of the year, having already lifted the title at the WTA Melbourne Summer Set 1 with her doubles partner, Asia Muhammad earlier this year.
“I don’t think we were expecting to win the tournament“- Pegula expresses her delight after clinching the title in Doha
Jessica Pegula was ecstatic about the title win, she expressed her surprise over winning a WTA 1000 tournament, considering they won their first match together just a week ago.
“We’re super excited. I don’t think we were expecting to win the tournament, let alone a 1000. We said before, seriously, last week was the first match we won together. We have teamed up before but we’ve had some first-round exits. It’s good to kind of find our chemistry a little bit on court and get that going. That obviously paid off a lot this week,” she said.
Gauff was also delighted about the victory and was glad that after multiple first-round exits, they found their rhythm. In the singles draw, Gauff and Pegula lost in the quarter-finals and third-round respectively but didn’t let their singles’ disappointment affect their doubles gameplay. The unseeded duo put on a remarkable performance to end Kudermetova/Mertens’s 8-match winning run and lift their first title together.
“I always knew that we had the ability to be a good team. We both do well in singles, and both of us do well in doubles with other partners, so it was like, we have the tools. We just need to figure out how to use them. Finally this week, even last week, we kind of got the machine starting, and this week it just kind of ran through,” Gauff said.
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