Coco Gauff apologises to WTA after accidentally leaking info she was 'told not to say'

Tennis star Coco Gauff was left red-faced after appearing to leak information about her participation in the WTA Finals before it was officially announced.

The 20-year-old was beaten by world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka in a closely-fought semi-final at the Wuhan Open. Gauff won the first set but eventually succumbed to a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss to miss out on reaching the showpiece event in China.

However, the American's run to the last four guaranteed her a place in the 2024 WTA Tour season closer in Riyadh in November, which features the top-eight ranked players in the women's game and boasts a £11.7million ($15.3m) prize pot.

While the places haven't been officially confirmed yet, Gauff accidentally revealed in her press conference that she had qualified in a response to a question about if she would make it.

"I saw that I qualified on the ranking race. Oops, they [WTA] said they didn't announce it yet!" Gauff told reporters.

The one-time Grand Slam winner was forced to apologise for her minor faux-pas after inadvertently leaking the information. She then broke out into laughter before explaining that there is an unofficial ranking website which calculates the live points before the WTA release their rankings.

"If you look it up online, there's a checkmark by my name. They told me not to say anything. Sorry. But it's by my name," Gauff added. "You can look it up, I'm there. I found out maybe two days ago. I don't remember which round, by [the] quarters or something."

The debate regarding the host city for the WTA Finals has turned sour in recent weeks after drawing notable criticism from tennis icons Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post.

The pair expressed their opposition to hosting the tournament in the Gulf nation, which does not boast a favourable human rights record. But Gauff insisted she is looking forward to the event.

"I'm really happy to be qualified. I'm happy to be going there. Honestly, going in it was like 'whatever happens, happens'," she added.

"Obviously you want to do the more positive thing. I think it's my third one in a row. It's my first time not playing doubles, so that's going to be a different experience.

"But I'm excited, I'm looking at dresses. They have a lot of things planned for us. I'm super excited, I heard it's going to be great."