American paths of grit lead to Riyadh finals
Amid Beijing’s hard-court intensity, Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, and Amanda Anisimova clinched WTA Finals berths through tactical tweaks and mental steel, setting up a stars-and-stripes showdown against the world’s elite.
Under Beijing’s unyielding hard courts, where the ball’s sharp bounce echoes the season’s pressures, three American players sealed their WTA Finals invitations with stories as distinct as their games yet bound by raw determination. Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, and Amanda Anisimova represent career milestones—defense at 21, resurgence at 30, debut at 24—fueling a red-white-and-blue momentum that now colors the Riyadh draw. With Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek already qualified, these qualifiers complete five of eight spots, their paths converging in a finale primed for psychological depth and baseline firepower.
Gauff sharpens serve for title repeat
Gauff reached the China Open semifinals to lock in her fourth WTA Finals appearance, extending a streak of 14 wins in 15 matches here that stands alone in the event’s two-decade-plus history. The 21-year-old’s season swung from a senior Roland Garros triumph—seven years after her junior win there—to grass-court stumbles in Berlin and Wimbledon, where double faults eroded her confidence on the North American hard-court shift. Turning to coach Gavin MacMillan, who refined her toss and motion much like he did for Sabalenka, she steadied her one–two punch, blending inside-out forehands with deeper second serves to dominate points this week.
This revival echoes last year’s China swing, where she captured the Beijing title and nine of 10 matches across Wuhan and Beijing, arriving in Riyadh to topple four Top 10 opponents—including Sabalenka and Swiatek—for the year-end crown. Now fifth in the Race standings, Gauff eyes back-to-back titles, a feat unseen since Serena Williams over a decade ago, potentially marking her as the only active player with multiple Finals victories. The US Open’s fourth-round exit to Naomi Osaka had tested her, but Beijing’s crowd energy and court tempo now amplify her baseline command, displacing earlier doubts with the scent of repetition.
“That’s pretty cool,” Gauff told reporters afterward. “To see a checkmark by your name definitely gives you a sense of relief for sure.”
Keys grounds expectations after Slam breakthrough
Keys qualified as the fourth singles entrant when Gauff hit the semifinals, her Australian Open title guaranteeing a Top 20 finish under WTA rules for major champions. At 30, she claims her second Finals berth nine years after Singapore, where losses to now-retired Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber marked her youth. January’s Melbourne run—defeating Sabalenka and Swiatek in the last two rounds as the oldest to topple the Nos. 1 and 2 in a major’s closing acts in 50 years of rankings—lifted the burden of unmet Slam dreams, freeing her flat groundstrokes and penetrating serves for a summer resurgence.
Injury sidelined her from Beijing and Wuhan, but the mental shift toward embracing her career’s achievements allowed selective net rushes and crosscourt backhands to pin foes deep, her inside-in forehands exploiting openings with measured aggression. She skipped grass to heal, returning with a focus on process that tempers rising stakes. Keys reflected on this balance earlier in the year, emphasizing restraint amid heightened personal demands.
“It’s really important for me and for my team to remember how we got there and what we were doing,” she said at Indian Wells in March. “And I think kind of going back to that, and staying really grounded in that is going to be really important. I think the balance of being honest with my expectations rising, but also knowing that I don’t think anyone really thrives when you have such a dramatic mind shift so quickly after success.”
Her perseverance positions her for Riyadh’s fast indoor hard courts, where surface speed favors her depth and the psychological edge from that January liberation could counter the field’s power, turning past near-misses into forward momentum.
Anisimova channels fearlessness in comeback surge
Anisimova’s Thursday win over Jasmine Paolini propelled her to the semifinals and her first WTA Finals spot at 24, capping a Beijing run that included a 24-point third-set tiebreak against Shuai Zhang and set-down comebacks versus Karolina Muchova and Paolini. After four straight opening losses in WTA 1000s, she stepped away in spring 2023, falling to No. 442 by the 2024 Australian Open, a break with family that rebuilt her mental core. Reentering the Top 50 by late 2024, she exploded in 2025 with a Doha WTA 1000 title, her 6-0, 6-0 final sprint vaulting her into the Top 20 for the first time.
The year wove through a Roland Garros fourth round, a Queen’s grass final, and a Wimbledon semifinal upset of Sabalenka, though Swiatek’s 6-0, 6-0 final rout stung. At the US Open, she exacted revenge with a 6-4, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Swiatek, ousted Naomi Osaka in the semis, and pushed Sabalenka to a second-set tiebreak in the final. Anisimova’s game now thrives on underspin slices to vary pace before down-the-line winners, her aggressive returns and positive visualization mastering prolonged rallies under Beijing’s pressure, where grunts and footfalls tested her resolve.
“Today I really came out there with, like, not an ounce of fear,” Anisimova said after beating Swiatek. “I feel like I really made a point to myself and also maybe to other people that, like, if you really put a positive mindset out there or just try and work through things, then you can have a positive outcome.”
This evolved patience signals her readiness for Riyadh, where hard-court affinity amplifies her flat hitting and fearless tempo, joining the qualifiers in a draw humming with potential American breakthroughs amid the season’s closing mental and tactical duels.
