Coco Gauff is the new doubles world No.1, following her triumph at the National Bank Open with fellow American Jessica Pegula. The 18-year-old is the second-youngest WTA player in history to achieve the feat after Martina Hingis reached the top spot at 17 years and 251 days old in June 1998.
Third seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula won their second WTA 1000 doubles title of the year together with a 6-4 6-7(5) [10-5] victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez in the final of the National Bank Open in Toronto.
The triumph has made Gauff the 46th player to hold the No.1 WTA doubles ranking (which was introduced on September 10th, 1984), while Pegula made her Top 10 debut in doubles.
Teenager Gauff commented on her latest milestone:
As a kid, I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t even know there was separate rankings for singles and doubles. But when I got on tour and when I realized I could do well in doubles, yes. … I wanted to. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be No.1 in anything?
The singles world No.8 Pegula is happy for her partner’s success:
I’m so glad that I could help [Gauff] get there today. I think we’re No.1 in the Race and the top two Americans in singles. So it’s been a pretty cool little journey that we’re on together, even though I’m ten years older.
Amazing. Coco is #1 in doubles and #11 in singles. And Marija, the US is scaling back restrictions on Covid vaccine status. Maybe Nole CAN play the US Open. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Jim, Coco is down to No. 12 in singles, but that’s still amazing. As for Nole, I hope that the corona measures will be relaxed enough for him to be able to play. In Serbia, there are no restrictions at all. Maybe only in hospitals.