Mirra Andreeva beats Jessica Pegula to reach her first WTA Finals final

Mirra Andreeva reached the final of the WTA Finals on Saturday, 14 November, beating Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-4 in Indian Wells. The third seed needed 1 hour 25 minutes to win the pair's first meeting on tour and will play for the title on Sunday.

Errors decide the first set

Pegula, the fifth seed, made the better start. According to the WTA's match report, she broke for 2-1 after a double fault from Andreeva, but the lead did not last. Andreeva broke straight back, held for 3-2 and kept the pressure on the American's serve until a second break at 5-3 gave her the set in just under 45 minutes.

The WTA counted 18 unforced errors from Pegula in that opening set, a high number for a player whose game is usually built on clean, flat hitting from the baseline.

A comeback inside the second set

The second set briefly looked like it might turn. Pegula broke to lead 3-1, but Andreeva immediately broke back and levelled at 3-3. From there the teenager won five of the last six games of the match. Pegula held for 4-5 to make her opponent serve it out, and Andreeva did so at the first attempt.

The win was Andreeva's 54th of the season, according to the WTA, and it extended a run in which she has not lost a set all week in the desert.

An unbeaten week so far

Andreeva arrived in the semi-finals after winning all three of her Group 2 matches in straight sets, against Aryna Sabalenka, Elina Svitolina and alternate Diana Shnaider, who replaced Karolina Muchova after her withdrawal. The WTA noted that she is the youngest player to reach the semi-finals of the event since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009.

The run is a turnaround from how she said she felt before the tournament. "Before the tournament started, I was stressed -- I was afraid that I wouldn't win a match in the group," Andreeva told the WTA before the semi-final. Tennis Majors reported that her results this week also put her on course to rise to world No. 2 in Monday's rankings.

For Pegula, the defeat ends a week in which she saved a match point against Linda Noskova to qualify from Group 1, a result that also knocked out Coco Gauff. Before Saturday she had noted how little she knew her opponent's game: "We've only practiced with each other twice, and we've never played," she told Tennis Majors.

What comes next

Andreeva will play the winner of the second semi-final between Elina Svitolina, the 2018 champion and the only former winner left in the draw, and Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, who topped Group 1 on her debut. Noskova leads that head-to-head 3-1, according to the WTA. If Svitolina comes through, it will be a rematch of a group-stage match that Andreeva won earlier in the week.

The final is scheduled for Sunday, 15 November, in Indian Wells, and it will close the 2026 WTA season.