We Speak Tennis

Gauff Survives Pegula In A WTA Finals Thriller To Open Indian Wells Campaign

Published

1 hour ago

November 9, 2026

Coco Gauff celebrates during her WTA Finals match against Jessica Pegula at Indian Wells.

Coco Gauff celebrates a point against Jessica Pegula at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells. Photo by WTA.

Coco Gauff opened her WTA Finals campaign with the kind of win that defines a champion, outlasting Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 in a two hour and 39 minute thriller on Sunday at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Gauff, the No. 4 seed and the 2024 WTA Finals champion, took the opening set by breaking in the final game. The second set looked gone when she fell behind 5-1, but she stormed back, saving set points in the tenth game and winning five straight games to stand at 6-5 with a match point in hand.

Pegula saved that match point, held for the tiebreak and took it 7-5 to force a decider.

Gauff’s answer was immediate. She broke in the opening game of the third set, raced to a 3-0 lead and never looked back, breaking again on her way to closing it out 6-2 when Pegula sent a backhand beyond the baseline on the third match point.

The numbers tell the story of her fight. Gauff saved 7 of 11 break points while breaking Pegula’s serve seven times in 16 chances. It was her sixth win over Pegula in 11 career meetings, and her third straight win over her fellow American this season, following victories in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and the Cincinnati final.

The win moves Gauff to 1-0 in Group 1, where she is the highest seed following the withdrawal of world No. 1 Elena Rybakina with a viral illness. Competing in her fifth consecutive WTA Finals, Gauff became the youngest player to make five straight appearances at the event since Martina Hingis from 1996 to 2000.

Afterwards, Gauff pointed to her reset after the lost match point as the key to taking over the third set. She had not played a tournament match since the China Open in early October, and she joked that the physical battle had shredded her shoes, leaving her in need of a new pair for her next match.

Next up for Gauff is No. 8 seed Linda Noskova, the reigning Wimbledon champion, who beat Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-4 in the day’s other Group 1 match. Group 2 features Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova.

We Speak International Sports

Iva Jovic, 18, Beats Paolini Again to Reach Ningbo Quarterfinals

American teenager Iva Jovic beat Jasmine Paolini for the second straight time, 6-4, 6-3, on Thursday to reach her seventh quarterfinal of a breakout 2026 season at the Ningbo Open.

Published

3 weeks ago

October 22, 2026

Royal Jones

Iva Jovic hitting a backhand at the Ningbo Open

Iva Jovic’s breakout season rolled on in Ningbo. The 18-year-old American, the No. 4 seed, defeated two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Ningbo Open on her tournament debut.

After a first-round bye, Jovic fell behind 1-3 in the opening set before breaking in the fifth and ninth games to take it. The second set featured break after break — Jovic broke Paolini four more times — and she closed out the win in an hour and 22 minutes.

It is Jovic’s second straight win over Paolini, leveling their head-to-head at 2-2. She also beat the Italian at the Australian Open in January, her first Top 10 win, on her way to a first Grand Slam quarterfinal. By the WTA‘s count, Thursday’s win was her 42nd tour-level victory of 2026 — by far her best season — her 20th career win over a Top 50 opponent, and it puts her in a seventh quarterfinal this year. She reached the semifinals in five of the previous six.

Born in Torrance, California, Jovic won her first WTA title in Guadalajara in September 2025, the youngest tour champion of that season, then defended the title last month, beating Peyton Stearns in the final. This year she has also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and the US Open and peaked at a career-high No. 11 earlier this month; she is currently ranked No. 12.

Jovic plays sixth seed Diana Shnaider in the quarterfinals, having won their only previous meeting, in Dubai, in three sets. And with Iga Swiatek’s season over, a deep run in Ningbo would strengthen her case to travel to next month’s WTA Finals in Indian Wells as an alternate.

Photo credit: WTA