A back-and-forth encounter between Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula left fans on the edge of their seats for well over two and a half hours on Sunday at the WTA Finals.
In the end, it was Gauff who delivered the knockout blow, ending a charged battle with her compatriot to open her fifth consecutive WTA Finals appearance with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 triumph.
Each of the three sets felt like a match within a match.
After eight consecutive holds to start the match, Gauff rallied from triple break point down to hold for 5-4 in set one.
Winning eight of the next nine points took Gauff to double set point with Pegula serving in the following game. She missed a backhand on the first opportunity, and Pegula swung a wide serve for an ace to level the game.
A third set point went begging as Pegula made a great stretch volley to force an error. But a fourth would do the trick as Pegula sailed a backhand long to surrender the set, 6-4.
Gauff hit ten winners to just four from Pegula in that opening set and secured the only break.
Pegula Scraps Through Set 2
Pegula quickly took a double-break lead in the second, and when Gauff broke to draw closer, Pegula broke again for 4-1.
“You always feel a little on edge against Coco just because she is so fast and you have to play so well and place the ball repeatedly close to the lines. On top of knowing that she comes back so consistently, is so difficult,” said Madison Keys, who was calling the match for Tennis Channel.
Gauff made those words sound prophetic as she rallied from 5-1 to 5-5, saving three set points and converting her second break point of a four-deuce game to level up the second set with 1:31 on the match clock.
“I think for me, the difference was just trying to be more aggressive,” Gauff said at the Tennis Channel desk after the match. “I made some errors early in the second, and then towards the end of the second maybe got a bit passive, and she was able to, you know, take over.
“She’s really good when she can take over the court.
“In the third, I tried to hit a little bit heavier and a little bit deeper in the court. And I don’t know, it just kind of turned my way. Served a little bit better, made more first serves.”
In comeback mode now, Gauff continued to push in another four-deuce game, saving two break points to stretch her run to five consecutive games as she held for 6-5.
“I didn’t even realize it was 5-1,” Gauff said with a smile. “I thought it was like 5-2 or 3.”
The real resilience in the set was not limited to Gauff, however. Pegula saved a match point with Gauff serving at 6-5, then played a stellar tiebreak and seared a down-the-line forehand winner for 5-2. A fourth set point went begging when Pegula netted a crosscourt volley, but the Buffalo native ripped a forehand return winner to take the breaker and force the decider.
Three-Set Magic from Coco
With the sun setting over Stadium 2, Gauff hit back with authority in the third set, racing out to a double-break 3-0 lead. Pegula edged back, taking the next two games, but Gauff was needling away with increasing regularity at her rival’s serve. She earned a break point in each of Pegula’s service games in the decider and converted three.
In total, Gauff broke Pegula in five of her final seven return games, the last for 5-2 in the final set.
Gauff said she was pleased with her physicality more than anything else on Sunday.
“I’m pretty proud of myself physically, because I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t training as hard as normal, like on the off-court stuff, just because it’s the end of the season,” she said.
“So I was like, I hope I still have legs two hours in! And I definitely did.”
She consolidated in the final game, closing out a hard-fought win to improve to 19-11 in three-setters in 2026.
It’s so beautiful to watch Coco play.