St Petersburg (USA), Oct 14 (IANS): The doubles team of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula have qualified for the 2022 WTA Finals, to be held in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Dickies Arena from October 31 to November 7, the WTA announced on Friday.

Gauff and Pegula are the fifth doubles team to confirm their place in Fort Worth, joining reigning champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos, Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko, and Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.

The team will be the first all-American pairing to contest the WTA Finals since 2015 (Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears), and are bidding to be the first players from the UNited States win the WTA Finals Martina Navratilova since Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in 2011.

Their qualification comes hot on the heels of Pegula also securing her place at the WTA Finals in singles, and she will be the first American to feature at the ending tournament in both singles and doubles since Serena and Venus Williams in 2009.

Gauff and Pegula have won two titles in 2022, at the WTA 1000 National Bank Open presented by Rogers (Toronto) and WTA 500 Qatar TotalEnergies Open (Doha), and reached a further final at Roland Garros. They are also currently through to the semifinals at the WTA 500 San Diego Open, which secured their qualification for the WTA Finals.

In Toronto, Gauff became the World No.1 in doubles and the second-youngest player in WTA history to earn the doubles No.1 ranking (which was introduced on September 10, 1984).

Gauff remains in strong contention to qualify in singles for Fort Worth and is currently at No.4 on the Race to the WTA Finals. In addition to Pegula, Gauff is bidding to join World No.1 Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur, both of whom secured their qualification last month.