Coco Gauff WTA Finals group stage opener win over Jessica Pegula, Digi Mart USA News (Indian Wells, California): Coco Gauff outlasted fellow American Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 on Sunday in a tension-packed Group One opener at the WTA Finals at Indian Wells, according to an AFP report.
Two-time major winner Gauff fell behind 5-1 in the second set but saved three set points in the 10th game and won five games in a row to seize a 6-5 edge. Pegula denied a Gauff match point and held in the 12th game to force a tiebreaker, then jumped to a 5-2 lead and forced a third set with a forehand return winner.
Gauff took a 3-0 lead in the third set and dominated from there, holding in the final game to win the match after two hours and 39 minutes, when Pegula hit a backhand beyond the baseline.
“I was having a lot of fun,” Gauff said. “I took a little break.
First match in like a month. To play a tournament like this with no preparation is something I’ve never done in my career.”
“I’m just really happy to get through today. It was a tough match.
It was 2 1/2 hours and I feel like every point was — I don’t know if you guys were holding my breath but me too, so just happy to be through.”
Gauff, the 2023 US Open and 2025 French Open champion, and Pegula had split 10 prior career matches, with Gauff winning the Cincinnati final and a Wimbledon quarter-final this year in their most recent meetings.
In the other Group One opener, reigning Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-4. Noskova, a 21-year-old Czech, needed only 86 minutes to win.
World number one and reigning champion Elena Rybakina withdrew from the WTA Finals on Saturday due to a viral illness, and Kostyuk replaced her at the California hardcourt event. Noskova improved to 3-1 against Kostyuk, all of their meetings coming this year, as both made the WTA Finals for the first time.
Noskova won in three sets at the US Open fourth round in their most recent prior meeting and in the Wimbledon semi-finals, while Kostyuk won on her way to the Madrid clay crown.
This year’s WTA Finals were scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia but were moved to Indian Wells in July after US military strikes on Iran in February and the subsequent war in the region.
