Coco Gauff let a match point slip and a set disappear, then pulled clear in the decider to beat Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 in two hours and 39 minutes in her opening match of the WTA Finals at Indian Wells.
The 2024 champion converted seven of her 16 break points on Sunday and saved seven of the 11 she faced, in a Group 1 contest that produced 11 service breaks in 31 games. The 22-year-old now leads her fellow American 6-5 in their career meetings, and shares first place in the group with Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, who beat Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-4 earlier in the day.
A missed chance and a strong response
The first set turned at 4-4, when Gauff recovered from 0-40 to hold serve. She then took the only break of the set in the next game to close it out 6-4.
Pegula appeared to have regained control when she moved 5-1 ahead in the second, but Gauff won five games in a row and earned a match point with Pegula serving at 5-6. Pegula saved it, forced a tie-break and took it 7-5 to level the match.
A swing of that size might have decided the contest. Instead, Gauff won the first three games of the third set and went on to lead 5-2. A missed overhead from Pegula gave her two more match points, and she finished the job at the third time of asking.
“I was having a lot of fun today,” Gauff said. “I had a match point in the second (set) and I didn’t get too down on myself.”
She added: “I think today, the key was just trying to be aggressive, but I also had to run a lot.”
Gauff had not played a match since early October, a lay-off that made the length of the contest a real test. “I’m really proud of myself for this one,” she said.
Rivals, friends and a week of controversy
The match carried more than the usual weight of an all-American meeting. Four days before the tournament began, a private practice-court conversation in which Pegula called world number three Mirra Andreeva “a diva” who “needs to be humbled” was broadcast on the WTA’s YouTube channel. The tour took “full responsibility”, and its chair Valerie Camillo later apologised for what she called a “failure in our technical execution and monitoring”.
Gauff was drawn into the episode because Pegula had used her as a point of comparison, saying of Andreeva: “If she had Coco’s mentality, she’d be better than her.” Gauff said after the match that Pegula had apologised to her before she had even seen the footage, and that there was no issue between them.
Sunday’s result was Gauff’s third win in a row against Pegula, a run that includes their meeting at the Cincinnati Open earlier this year, the tournament that provided Gauff’s only title of 2026. She also lost finals in Miami, to Aryna Sabalenka, and Rome, to Elina Svitolina.
Gauff’s presence in the field is itself a statement of consistency. She is the youngest player to reach five consecutive WTA Finals since Martina Hingis in 2000.
For Pegula, 32, the defeat is a setback at the end of a season that brought titles in Dubai and Charleston. The 2023 runner-up recovered to win the second set after surrendering a 5-1 lead, but could not carry that momentum into the third.
What comes next in Group 1
The tournament, moved from Riyadh because of instability in the Middle East, has already lost its top player. World number one Elena Rybakina withdrew with a viral illness on the eve of the event, bringing in Kostyuk as first alternate and removing the highest-ranked player from Group 1.
The standings after the first day are:
- Linda Noskova: 1-0 (sets 2-0)
- Coco Gauff: 1-0 (sets 2-1)
- Jessica Pegula: 0-1 (sets 1-2)
- Marta Kostyuk: 0-1 (sets 0-2)
Gauff faces eighth seed Noskova on Tuesday in a meeting that could put the winner within reach of the semi-finals, with the top two in each group advancing. Pegula meets Kostyuk in a match between the two players who lost on Sunday, with the loser falling to 0-2.
Gauff will need to be sharper on serve against Noskova, having been broken four times by Pegula. She has shown, though, that she can absorb a damaging setback within a match and still finish it strongly.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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