Coco Gauff overcomes 17 double-faults and a deficit at the WTA Finals to beat Marketa Vondrousova

Coco Gauff (USA) showed mental toughness to overcome 17 double-faults and come back from being a game away from elimination to beat Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 at the WTA Finals.

Coco Gauff overcame 17 double-faults and came back after being a game away from elimination at the WTA Finals, eventually pulling out a 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 victory over Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in a round-robin match to stay in contention for a semifinal berth.

"Mental toughness is the biggest thing I'm pleased with," Gauff said on Friday.

"That was a tough match. She's not an easy player. Not easy conditions. And I stayed in there, every point, just fighting." Gauff, the 19-year-old from Florida who won the U.S. Open in September, dropped four consecutive games and 16 of 21 points to go from leading the opening set to dropping it and trailing 1-0 in the next.

There was a 25-minute rain delay early in the second set; perhaps that helped Gauff regroup a bit.

Still, Vondrousova managed to get in front and serve for the victory at 6-5 in the second. Gauff broke there to stay in it.

And after briefly trailing in the third set, too, Gauff grabbed five of the match's last six games to improve to 2-1 at the season-ending championship for the top eight players in women's tennis.

Vondrousova went 0-3 and will not advance.