Coco Gauff & Jessica Pegula's coaches recreate duo's Qatar Open doubles trophy shoot, draw amused reactions from Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady & others
First-seeded American pair Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula reigned supreme in the doubles final at the 2023 Qatar Open by taking down the second seeded pair of Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko and Ukraine's Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-4, 2-6, 10-7.
The American duo safely defended their doubles title in Doha as a result, where they won against Russia's Veronika Kudermetova and Belgium's Elise Mertens last year 3–6, 7–5, 10-5 in the summit clash.
Pegula later took to Instagram to share a few photos of the pair's victory, with Gauff and Pegula facing each other's back and lifting their respective trophies. Hilarity ensued when Gauff's coach Diego Moyano and Pegula's coach David Witt recreated the pose, which incited amused reactions from the players on the WTA tour.
"back 2 back, but more importantly who did it better? @qatartennis" Pegula captioned the post.
American players Jenny Brady, Madison Keys and Alycia Parks reacted to the post amongst others and the players chose the coaches as the better posers as opposed to Gauff and Pegula.
"Hilarious," Alison Riske-Amritraj wrote.
"Definitely Diego and David Witt," Jennifer Brady wrote.
"Dupeee," Gauff herself commented.
Madison Keys responded with several laugh-out-loud emojis, while former Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig also picked Diego Moyano as the better poser.
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula share excitement over winning the doubles title at Qatar Open
American pair Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula have proved to be one of the strongest doubles pairings in recent times, with the duo winning their fourth title as a team at the 2023 Qatar Total Energies Open.
In June last year, the duo reached their first Grand Slam final at the French Open but were defeated by French pair Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 3-6, 2-6. The pair won the Canadian Open in August 2022 and a few months later, in October 2022, Gauff and Pegula also triumphed at the San Diego Open.
The first-seeded pair took to Twitter to share their excitement over their second win in Doha.
"running it back from last year! 2x" Pegula tweeted
twitter.com/wta/status/162…
running it back from last year! 2x🏆 twitter.com/wta/status/162…
"Back2back" Gauff tweeted
twitter.com/wta/status/162…
Back2back💕 twitter.com/wta/status/162…
Since legendary sisters Venus and Serena Williams dominated the rankings, this is the first time since 2010 that two Americans are in the Top-4 of both the WTA singles and doubles rankings. Gauff is ranked No. 4 in singles and No. 2 in doubles, while Pegula is currently at a career-high ranking of No. 3 in both formats.