{"id":9945,"date":"2025-04-11T05:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T05:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/9945\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T05:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T05:13:14","slug":"coco-gauff-sends-one-word-message-to-rival-after-billionaire-heiress-snatches-her-world-no-3-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/9945\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff sends one-word message to rival after billionaire heiress snatches her world No.3 spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a new US No. 1 in town and she goes by the name Jessica Pegula – who has now dethroned Coco Gauff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American tennis star has moved above Gauff<\/a> to officially become the new world No.3 after winning the Charleston Open.<\/p>\n

\"Pegula<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Pegula has won the first clay tournament of the seasonCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Pegula’s championship win was anything but straightforward. The 31-year-old had to mount a second-set fightback to beat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It was the first All-American final since 1990 and Pegula nearly had her first clay title slip away from her when she was down 5-1 in the second set.<\/p>\n

However, the top seed saved three set points and won six games in a row against 2020 Australian Open<\/a> champion Kenin to seal the victory. <\/p>\n

It is the latest victory following a string of strong performances from Pegula in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The American, who is the daughter of billionaire Buffalo Bills<\/a> owner Terry Pegula, reached the Miami Open final last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“To be able to come here this week after a long two weeks in Miami and take the title is just incredible,” said Pegula.<\/p>\n

“In the second set, I just wanted to hold, I just wanted to tell myself to get momentum for the third, because coming into a third like that never feels good.<\/p>\n

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to break her twice, but luckily I could play some good tennis.”<\/p>\n

The new US No.1 was congratulated by her fellow American stars after she celebrated her Charleston Open success on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaddie and I had a great week,\u201d Pegula wrote on Instagram about her and her dog. \u201cIt\u2019s really special winning in a place that means so much to me.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

The American is on a strong run of form and is now the World No.3Credit: Getty\"DUBAI,<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Gauff has struggled in recent months and is no longer the US’ top-ranked tennis playerCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cCharleston Open, you go above and beyond to make this tournament the best it can be \u2013 thank you for everything. I already can\u2019t wait for next year, Charleston.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were no hard feelings from Gauff, who posted a celebratory one-word message to Pegula despite her compatriot bumping her down the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Gauff commented: \u201cCongratulations,\u201d while recent Australian Open champion\u00a0Madison Keys<\/a>\u00a0commenting: \u201cGoat s***”.<\/p>\n

Other tennis stars like Victoria Azarenka<\/a> and Kim Clijsters also messaged Pegula, with the former writing: \u201cLove that, congrats Jessie,\u201d as the latter shared a handful of emojis.<\/p>\n

Pegula has now won 17 of her last 19 matches, and with five victories this week, has 25 for the season.<\/p>\n

This makes her the most in-form player on the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n

The greatest tennis coach ever analyses Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek’s forehands<\/p>\n

Pegula is also now the 10th American to win the home title in Charleston.<\/p>\n

She joins Rosie Casals, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Serena Williams<\/a>, Venus Williams<\/a>, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys<\/a>, and Danielle Collins as the other Americans to lift the title.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gauff, who has relinquished her title as the top-ranked American player and drops to world No.4, has struggled on the tour this season.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old has had multiple early exits across several WTA tournaments since the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

After a\u00a0quarter-final defeat to Paula Badosa\u00a0in Melbourne,\u00a0the 21-year-old\u00a0suffered further losses\u00a0<\/a>to Martha Kostyuk in Doha before losing to McCartney Kessler 6-4, 7-5 in Dubai.<\/p>\n

Indian Wells and the Miami Open did not offer any reassurance to Gauff either as she was\u00a0upset by Belinda Bencic<\/a>\u00a0and Magda Linette<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

Pegula’s rise to become to the US No.1 will now set up a battle between her and Gauff on the WTA tour, with the pair separated by just 38 points in the rankings.<\/p>\n

The next time they will compete in the same event on tour will be at the Stuttgart Open, which begins next week. <\/p>\n

World No.1 and No.2, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and Iga Swiatek, are set to take part, along with the American stars. <\/p>\n

Gauff will need an impressive performance to bounce back and try to reclaim her No.1 spot from Pegula. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s a new US No. 1 in town and she goes by the name Jessica Pegula – who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[6743,6752,6740,6755,6746,6750,6745,6744,6747,5066,6754,6751,6756,6741,6758,6753,6748,6749,6757,6742,79,1068,16,15,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-9945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-charleston-open","9":"tag-clay-season-tennis","10":"tag-coco-gauff","11":"tag-coco-gauff-jess-pegula","12":"tag-coco-gauff-next-match","13":"tag-coco-gauff-results","14":"tag-coco-gauff-schedule","15":"tag-coco-gauff-wta-rankings","16":"tag-coco-guaff-struggles","17":"tag-french-open","18":"tag-gauff-pegula","19":"tag-grand-slams","20":"tag-jess-pegula","21":"tag-jessica-pegula","22":"tag-jessica-pegula-net-worth","23":"tag-jessica-pegula-parents","24":"tag-jessica-pegula-ranking","25":"tag-jessica-pegula-results","26":"tag-pegula-net-worth","27":"tag-sofia-kenin","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-tennis","30":"tag-uk","31":"tag-united-kingdom","32":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}