China's Zheng Qinwen eyes history in WTA Finals

China's tennis ace Zheng Qinwen aims to become the first Chinese player to win the WTA Finals in her tournament debut appearance, as she takes on Coco Gauff of the U.S. in the WTA Finals championship match on Saturday night.

The match between 22-year-old Zheng and 20-year-old Gauff marks the youngest pair of finalists at the WTA Finals since Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in 2004.

Seeded No.7, Zheng advanced from the Purple Group with a 2-1 record, notching wins over Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and Jasmine Paolini of Italy.

Zheng's sole loss in the group was against world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who was defeated by Gauff in the other semifinal match.

In her first WTA Finals semifinal, Zheng held off Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book the berth for the championship.

Both Zheng and Gauff have enjoyed a strong surge through the end of the year.

Zheng, current world No.7, has won a tour-leading 31 matches since Wimbledon. Her current season titles include winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris.

Gauff dropped just two matches since the U.S. Open, winning her second WTA 1000 title at the China Open last month, becoming the youngest WTA Finals finalist since Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in 2010.

The duo faced each other for the first time earlier this year on clay court at the Italian Open in May, where Gauff took the match by 7-6(4), 6-1.

"After half a year, I feel the situation is different. I got more endurance in my physical. It's going to be a different match, different surface. It's going to be a new challenge for me," Zheng was quoted as saying by the WTA.

"When I was young, I always looked up to Serena Williams, so I was reaching for that powerful, explosive tennis. I put lot of effort on the physical, but at the same time, I put a lot of hours on the court to fix my game, to always find more improvement."

Both Gauff and Zheng have each earned over $2,305,000 in prize money, according to WTA figures. Saturday's winner will take home an additional $2.5 million, bringing the champion's total take to $4,805,000 -- the largest pool of prize money in the history of women's professional tennis.

Since the event's inception in 1972, Zheng becomes only the second Asian player to reach the final at the WTA Finals after Li Na pulled off that feat in 2013.