May 24 (UPI) -- American teen Cori "Coco" Gauff made history with singles and doubles titles in Italy and entered the Top 25 of the WTA tennis rankings for the first time Monday.
Coco, 17, became the youngest woman in 17 years to sweep the singles and doubles titles of a WTA event when she won both circuits of the Emilia-Romagna Open on Saturday in Parma. She moved up from No. 30 to No. 25 in the WTA singles rankings and to No. 41 in doubles.
Russian Maria Sharapova was also 17, but 15 days younger than Gauff, when she won both titles at the DFS Classic in Britain in 2004.
"It definitely means a lot, especially on clay, which is not really a surface I feel like people associate with me," Coco told WTATour.com on Saturday.
Related
"I always liked clay, but I always fall on it, I always get dirty. I have good results on it, so it's not about my performance."
Coco is the youngest player to make her Top 25 debut since Nicole Vaidisova did so at 16 in 2005. She is the youngest American to make her Top 25 debut since Serena Williams in 1998.
Five Americans -- Sofia Kenin, Williams, Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady and now Coco -- rank inside the Top 25 in the WTA singles rankings.
Coco opened her singles run in Parma with a win over Kaia Kanepi. She beat Camila Giorgi in the second round and bounced fellow American Amanda Anisimova in the quarterfinals.
Gauff beat Katerina Siniakova in the semifinals and won her fourth straight-sets match of the tournament with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Wang Qiang for the singles title.
A few hours later, Coco teamed up with American Caty McNally to beat Andreja Klepac and Darija Jurak 6-3, 6-2 in the doubles final to capture her second title of the day.
The Emilia-Romagna Open did not feature many high-ranked players, as Coco did not face any former major champions or Top 30 players. The tournament is one of the final tune-ups for next week's French Open, which runs from Sunday through June 12 at Roland Garros in Paris.
Coco lost in the second round last year at Roland Garros.
Ash Barty still holds the No. 1 spot in the WTA singles rankings. Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Aryna Sabalenka and Kenin also rank inside the Top 5. Elina Svitolina, Bianca Andreescu, Williams, Iga Swiatek and Karolina Pliskova fill out the rest of the Top 10.
