INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — Coco Gauff came agonizingly close to extending her stellar season at the WTA Finals.
If not for the vagaries of the event's convoluted round-robin play, one of the game's brightest stars would be still be around for the final weekend of the $10 million event.
In her fifth consecutive Finals appearance, Gauff won two of her three matches, as did Linda Noskova and Jessica Pegula. However, she narrowly missed out on making the semifinals based on set-percentage tiebreakers. She won one fewer set than Pegula, so Pegula advanced.
The other scenario in which Gauff could have moved on was out of her control. Wimbledon champion Noskova lost to Pegula after holding a match point, and that meant Gauff was eliminated from the event she won in 2024.
She rallied to win the last six games and beat Marta Kostyuk on Thursday in her final official match of the year.
“I didn’t want to be sad walking off the court,” she said. “Obviously with a win that helps, but even with a loss, I just wanted to still feel good about myself.”
It still was a lucrative week in the Southern California desert for the 22-year-old ranked fourth in the world.
Gauff took home $680,000. She finished the year with a 49-16 match record, including a title in Cincinnati (beating Pegula). She reached finals in Miami and Rome and semifinals in Dubai and Toronto. Her season prize money totaled just over $7 million.
At the Grand Slam events, where it matters most to the top players, Gauff was 16-4. She reached the semis at Wimbledon for the first time and the same stage at the U.S. Open.
“Anytime for me that I don’t have a Slam (title) in the season, it’s always going to be more to be desired,” she said. “But I definitely think I made pushes in areas and improvements, particularly in the grass court area. That was a part of my game I wanted to improve, and I proved that.”
Gauff has worked to smooth her once rocky road that included early-round exits, being done in by double-faulting on her serve, and dealing with public pressure as one of the most successful Black female players since the Williams sisters dominated the WTA Tour.
“My goal this season was to be more consistent,” she said. “I think that’s something that I can continue to build on. And the more I put myself in those semis and finals positions, I have faith that I’ll take more titles.”
Gauff plans to wear a smart ring on court next year. It tracks dozens of health and wellness metrics, including sleep stages and daily activity. She had it on briefly at Indian Wells.
“It tells me I need to sleep more,” she said, smiling. “I’m like really a night owl, and I can’t hide from my team anymore about how late I’m staying up. I'm just usually doom scrolling, that’s the problem."
Last month, Gauff was the target of what she said was an “insane” amount of racist comments and accusations of cheating on social media while playing the China Open. In her third-round match against Chinese teenager Sun Xinran, she stopped playing mid-point when a courtside electronic board flickered. The point was replayed and Gauff won, 7-5, 6-1.
The online backlash was swift, and an emotionally drained Gauff lost her next match. She withdrew from her next event, the Wuhan Open, where she was the defending champion.
“It was more like a mental thing after Beijing that I just needed to reset,” she said.
The United Nations' human rights office even weighed in, urging solidarity to push back against racist and sexist vitriol.
Knowing the heavy external stress Gauff is exposed to, her team encourages her to socialize more away from tennis. She was out on Halloween and she left the desert to attend Tyler, the Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival this weekend in Los Angeles.
“I am someone that when I am on tour, I can be almost too locked in sometimes or I’m not enjoying,” she said. “So I think it’s nice to have those breaks.”
Gauff will compete for the U.S. against Hungary in the Billie Jean King Cup playoffs on Nov. 20-22 in her hometown of Delray Beach, Florida. The competition offers prize money, but no rankings points.
She'll stay close to home in December, when she'll be a player-owner for the Florida franchise that competes in the new season of World Team Tennis.
Gauff is set to begin 2027 partnering with Ben Shelton at the mixed-gender United Cup in Australia in January.
“Hopefully, we can take that title,” she said.
See AP’s full tennis coverage here
FILE - Coco Gauff, of the United States, returns the ball to Elena Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, on Sept. 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
CHICLAYO, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned Friday to his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo and said it was a “joy” to be home, an emotional return underscoring his love for his Peruvian flock and their pride that their shepherd now runs the Catholic Church.
The pontiff, known here as “Padre Roberto,” arrived at Chiclayo’s airport on the Pacific coast and immediately headed to a vast, dusty field outside Chiclayo for his first Mass on Peruvian soil. The Vatican estimated 1 million people had lined his motorcade route to the Mass and that 500,000 attended.
They cheered wildly when Leo arrived and looped through the crowd in his popemobile, under a scorching sun and temperatures of 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit).
“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo!” Leo said. “It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” he said, thanking the faithful especially for their prayers during his recent hospitalization for lung cancer. He declared that “with God’s help, I am overcoming” the health scare.
Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast. But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
And on Friday, Chiclayo welcomed its former shepherd home.
"I’m elated. He has decided to return to Chiclayo and we have him here, with us -- home,” said Julie Albujar, who woke before dawn with her sister to travel to the Mass site, where they were tasked with taking the collection. “This is a party and it’s a sign of our faith and our love for the pope.”
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd. Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican's bishops' office.
In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.
But Prevost's heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis. And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods, and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.
“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope’s image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass. “Even though he’s now Pope Leo XIV, he hasn’t forgotten about his homeland.”
Nearby, the El Trébol proudly calls itself the pope's restaurant, and his image is displayed in framed photos of Prevost riding a horse, wading through the mud in rubber boots and celebrating his birthday with a cake.
A sign on his favorite table — No. 3 — with a view of the cathedral reads: “mesa bendita” – Spanish for blessed table. Like many other places around the city, the restaurant sells “Papaletas” or “Pop(e)sicles" with Leo's image in white chocolate.
Just a few steps from the restaurant, a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope now welcomes visitors to his former residence at the diocese, where an exhibit displays the amaranth purple, scarlet and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, that he wore as bishop, cardinal and now pope.
Ever since Leo touched down on Peruvian soil on Wednesday, the world has seen a very different pope.
Normally reserved and placid, the 71-year-old Leo has seemed at turns positively giddy and overwhelmed with emotion to the point of tears, as was the case on Friday.
Chiclayo seminarian Darwin Sánchez, who carried the pope’s miter during the Mass, said Leo greeted all the servers before Mass and was “very moved.”
“It was truly touching; thank God everything went well,” he said.
It wasn't Sánchez's first run-in with Leo. He recalled a Mass when, as a young altar boy, he mishandled the censer and passed it onto the man who was then bishop of Chiclayo.
After the service, Prevost took him aside and affectionately told him to be a bit more careful: Prevost had burned his hand when the chain fell into the hot charcoal, but he kept carrying it and didn’t complain or reprimand Sánchez in front of others.
“He’s approachable, happy and he gave me the strength and courage to follow my vocation,” Sánchez said.
As the Mass ended, the crowd erupted into a chant that reaffirmed their pride in calling the spiritual leader of more than 1.4 billion Catholics their own:
“El papa es Chiclayano!” they joyously yelled in Spanish: “The pope is Chiclayano.”
After Mass, Leo went to pray in a chapel dedicated to St. Oscar Romero, beloved among the working class and poor for defending them against repression by El Salvador’s army.
The chapel’s construction was spearheaded during Leo’s time as bishop, and its renovation was achieved through the efforts of the Rev. Edgar Rimaycuna, the pope’s personal secretary.
Leo’s decision to go there was perhaps symbolically significant.
When Prevost first arrived in Chiclayo, priests from the conservative Opus Dei movement had long had something of a monopoly on the diocese's parishes, alienating the faithful who had a more social justice bent and who were particularly devoted to Romero, according to the new biography “American Pope,” by NPR reporters Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow.
While careful not to alienate the Opus priests, Prevost worked hard to try to bring about change in the diocese to make it less the clerical model used by Opus and more a model that empowers lay people and looks out especially for the poorest, they wrote.
It was a dynamic that Prevost had embraced in the diocese of Trujillo, Peru, where he worked as a young missionary priest, said the Rev. John Lydon, a fellow Augustinian who lived with Prevost in Trujillo in those years from 1990-1999.
He said many of the Augustinians in Peru at the time had a devotion to Romero, Prevost included.
“This was before he was canonized by Pope Francis, but we always referred to him in the house in Trujillo as Santo Oscar de las Americas,” Lydon said in an interview. “So we canonized him before the church.”
AP writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Lima.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV arrives for a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, seminarians, synodal teams and pastoral councils at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo, Peru', on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Nuns wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, seminarians, synodal teams and pastoral councils at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo, Peru', on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to visit the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV visits the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Pope Leo XIV presides over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
The faithful await a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV after spending the night at Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Nuns prepare ciboria containing Communion wafers ahead of a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The faithful await a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV after spending the night at Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The faithful hold letters spelling the Spanish word for "Welcome" ahead of a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A cutout of Pope Leo XIV is displayed outside a restaurant in Chiclayo, Peru, where the pontiff served as bishop, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
People take a selfie with a sign of Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Faithful cheer during a prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV catches a stuffed lion as he arrives to lead a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
