Coco Gauff beat Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in two hours and 39 minutes to open her WTA Finals campaign at Indian Wells on Sunday. The 22-year-old American, seeded fourth, recovered from losing a second set she had led to run away with the decider and move to 1-0 in Group 1 of the eight-player round-robin event.

Gauff took the opening set by breaking in the final game, then looked set to win in straight sets when she fought back from 5-1 down in the second and held a match point at 6-5. Pegula saved it and took the tiebreak 7-5 to force a third set. Gauff answered by breaking in the opening game of the decider, racing to a 3-0 lead and closing out the match 6-2.

Pegula takes the second set in a tiebreak

The second set was the best tennis of the match. Pegula, who had break-point openings at 4-4 in the first set, took control early in the second and led 5-2. Gauff refused to let the set go, winning four games in a row to serve for the match at 6-5. Pegula held her nerve, saved the match point and then played the stronger tiebreak to level the match. It was a reminder of how little separates the two Americans, who have now met 11 times.

Gauff had chances of her own in the first set. She broke in the final game to move ahead, having kept Pegula under pressure on serve throughout. The match had already lasted more than two hours by the time the third set began, and both players had spent long spells on the run in the California sun at Stadium 2.

Gauff runs away with the decider

The third set belonged entirely to Gauff. She broke Pegula in the opening game, held for 2-0 and broke again on her way to 3-0. From there she did not look back, breaking Pegula in five of her final seven return games and sealing the win on her serve. The victory improved her record in three-set matches in 2026 to 19-11.

It also moved Gauff to 6-5 ahead in her career head-to-head against Pegula and extended her winning run against her compatriot to three matches. Gauff is playing in her fifth consecutive WTA Finals, and she is the youngest player to make five straight appearances at the event since Martina Hingis did so from 1996 to 2000.

What the win means

Gauff had not played a competitive match since the China Open at the start of October, and she said afterwards that the lack of recent match play made the opening win all the more welcome. She will next face Linda Noskova, who won her WTA Finals debut 6-2, 6-4 over Marta Kostyuk earlier in the day, hitting 20 winners in an aggressive display. Pegula will take on Kostyuk, who replaced an unwell Elena Rybakina in the draw.

This year's WTA Finals are being held at Indian Wells after the event moved from Riyadh, where it had been held since 2024, following instability in the Middle East. The tournament is set to move again in 2027, to Charlotte in North Carolina. Gauff, a two-time major champion, is chasing her first WTA Finals title, and this opening win puts her in a strong position in Group 1 with two round-robin matches still to play.