Coco Gauff beats Jessica Pegula and Linda Noskova wins on debut as the WTA Finals open

Coco Gauff beat Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 on Sunday 8 November as the WTA Finals began at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Earlier in Group 1, Linda Noskova won her first match at the event, beating late replacement Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-4.

Watch

Coco Gauff vs. Jessica Pegula | 2026 FAGE WTA Finals Group 1 | WTA Highlights — WTA · YouTube, plays on click

Gauff survives a second-set collapse

The all-American match lasted 2 hours 39 minutes, according to the WTA and ESPN. Gauff, the fourth seed, broke in the final game of the first set. The second set swung twice: Pegula led 5-1, Gauff then won five games in a row and earned a match point at 6-5, but Pegula saved it and took the tie-break 7-5 to level.

Gauff reset quickly. She broke in the opening game of the decider, moved ahead 3-0 and later 5-2, and converted her third match point after a missed overhead from Pegula, ESPN reported. "Mentally I think was the biggest difference. I didn't get too high or get too low," Gauff told the WTA. Pegula was generous in defeat: "That's what she does. That's what she's the best in the world at, I think," she said of Gauff, as quoted by the WTA.

It was Gauff's first match in over a month, and the win takes her to 6-5 in her rivalry with Pegula. The 2024 champion is playing the event for a fifth straight year, which makes her the youngest player to do so since Martina Hingis (1996-2000), the WTA noted.

Gauff on Pegula after the hot mic

The match came four days after courtside microphones on a livestreamed practice picked up Pegula talking privately with her coach Mark Knowles about Mirra Andreeva, with Gauff also mentioned. The WTA took responsibility for not telling players the audio was live, as we reported last week.

In her post-match press conference, Gauff said the episode had not changed anything between the two former doubles partners. Pegula "came and apologised immediately", before Gauff had even seen the video, she said, as reported by Tennishead and EssentiallySports. "I know her heart and it was all good," Gauff added, according to Tennishead, before summing up: "we're cool."

Noskova handles the late switch

Noskova, the eighth seed, had been due to face Elena Rybakina until the world No. 1 withdrew with a viral illness on the eve of the event. Against Kostyuk, the first alternate, she needed 1 hour 26 minutes. She broke for 4-2 in the second set and did not drop serve again, the WTA reported. "I did not want to have long rallies," the Czech said of her plan.

The win was the 21-year-old's 41st of the season, a career high, and made her the third-youngest Czech to win a match at the WTA Finals after Helena Sukova and Petra Kvitova, according to the WTA. She now leads Kostyuk 3-1 head-to-head. Kostyuk, who had lost her previous four matches, admitted she had not expected to open the tournament: "I wasn't expecting to start the tournament from the first match," she told the WTA.

Doubles: Errani and Paolini come from behind

In Group 2 of the doubles, Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, the last team to qualify, beat Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend 4-6, 6-1, 10-8 in 1 hour 32 minutes, a result confirmed by the WTA and ANSA. Siniakova and Townsend had beaten the Italians in the Indian Wells semi-finals and the Miami final in March, so the deciding match tie-break was a welcome change.

Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez also started with a win, 6-0, 6-4 over Ellen Perez and Demi Schuurs in 1 hour 10 minutes, according to the WTA and EFE. Perez and Schuurs led 4-1 in the second set before losing five games in a row. It was Bucsa's first match at the WTA Finals.

What comes next in Group 1

Gauff and Noskova, both 1-0, meet next. Gauff leads their head-to-head 2-1, but Noskova won their only meeting of 2026, in Madrid. Pegula faces Kostyuk, whom she leads 4-3 overall, although Kostyuk won both of their matches this year, in Brisbane and Madrid, the WTA said. With only the top two in each group reaching the semi-finals, a second defeat would leave either Pegula or Kostyuk on the brink.