ST PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The WTA announced Wednesday Coco Gauff and Caroline Garcia have qualified for the 2022 WTA Finals, joining World No.1 Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula in the singles draw.

Gauff, from Atlanta, Georgia, will be making her debut appearance at the season-ending tournament. She qualified in both singles and doubles with partner Pegula. They will be the first Americans to feature at the WTA Finals in singles and doubles since Serena and Venus Williams in 2009. 

At 18 years, 239 days old at the end of the WTA Finals, Gauff will also be the youngest to compete there since 2005, when Maria Sharapova reached the semifinals aged 18 and 208 days. Gauff will be the youngest American to contest the event since Lindsay Davenport's runner-up finish in 1994.

France's Garcia is no stranger to the WTA Finals. She qualified in singles in 2017 (reaching the semifinals) and in doubles in 2015 and 2016, and will be bidding to be the first Frenchwoman to win the tournament since Amélie Mauresmo in 2005.

Caroline Garcia

WTA

This season, Gauff reached her first Grand Slam singles final, at Roland Garros, and two further semifinals at the WTA 250 Adelaide International and WTA 500 Bett1Open (Berlin).

She boosted her qualification hopes further by reaching the quarterfinals at the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open (Doha) and then across North America at WTA 500 Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic (San Jose), WTA 1000 National Bank Open presented by Rogers (Toronto), the US Open and WTA 500 San Diego Open.

Gauff's last eight appearance in New York in September propelled her into the Top 10 for the first time in her career, and she peaked in the rankings at No.7 on Oct. 17.

Gauff, along with Pegula, ascended to the World No.1 doubles ranking on Aug. 15, where she became the second-youngest player in history.

Garcia returned to form in 2022 to qualify for her first WTA Finals in five years, winning three titles this year, firstly at WTA 250 tournaments at Bad Homburg Open presented by Engel & Voelkers and the BNP Paribas Poland Open (Warsaw).

She then came through qualifying to win the WTA 1000 Western & Southern Open (Cincinnati), defeating three Top 10 player en route to the title.

In addition she reached a further three semifinals, at the WTA 250 Open 6e Sens Métropole de Lyon and the Ladies Open Lausanne, before posting her best Grand Slam singles result by making the last four at the US Open, where she returned to the Top 10 for the first time since October 2018.

The 2022 WTA Finals features the Top 8 singles players and doubles teams on the Race to the WTA Finals, competing in a round-robin format with the singles champion lifting the WTA Finals Billie Jean King Trophy and the doubles champions earning the WTA Finals Martina Navratilova Trophy.

Click here to see the latest Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard.

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