"Disciplined" Jessica Pegula holds off defending champion Coco Gauff at 2025 WTA Finals

Jessica Pegula ended Day 2 of singles action at the 2025 WTA Finals with the biggest upset of the weekend, the fifth-seeded American defeating countrywoman and No. 3 seed Coco Gauff, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2.

🖥️📲REPLAY: Jessica Pegula def. Coco Gauff, 2025 WTA Finals RR

Pegula continued a resurgent second half of the season and avenged a Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open finals loss to Gauff, who is the defending champion in Riyadh, after two hours and 12 minutes on Center Court.

"Coco's a great champion, great competitor, good friend, so it's always tough playing her," Pegula said on court after the match. "It's always tough playing her. She was the last person I actually played in China, so we know each others' games pretty well. I don't think there's any secrets with this group of girls, so I just tried my best today to execute where I could."

The victory gives Pegula a 1-0 lead in the Stefanie Graf Group and books her a second round-robin match with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday.

The world No. 5 battled through an up and down season before catching fire at the US Open, where she reached the final in 2024. Pegula made an impressive return to the semifinals in September and pushed eventual champion Sabalenka to the brink under the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights.

A month later, she handed Sabalenka her first-ever loss in Wuhan en route to the championship match, where she lost to Gauff in straight sets but nonetheless secured a fourth straight trip to the WTA Finals.

She faced an uphill battle in a stacked round-robin group that included both Sabalenka and Gauff, with only two able to advance into the semifinals. Runner-up at the WTA Finals in 2023, Pegula got off to a strong start against Gauff, who struggled with her range to kick off their Sunday evening encounter.

Gauff enjoyed a phenomenal season, highlighted by a second Grand Slam victory at Roland Garros, but the young American struggled with her serve on and off throughout the year, hiring biomechanic coach Gavin MacMillan ahead of this year’s US Open. She struck 19 unforced errors in the first set against Pegula, but turned things around with multiple break leads before ultimately leveling the match in a tiebreaker.

"In the first set, I played well and she wasn't serving great," Pegula explained. "But in the second, she started serving really well and started going for her serve. I know with someone like her, who's such a great competitor, she was going to switch up the game plan a little, and she did that in the second. I still had some chances to get the break back, get broken, and then the tiebreaker. There were a lot of highs and lows but I'm accustomed to those at this time of year. I've played a lot of three-set matches with a lot of highs and lows, so I just tried not to think about the time, the mistakes I've had, or the chances I've had, and just focus on my strategy. I thought I was very disciplined there in the third set."

Indeed, Pegula got off to a better start in the third, emerging from an early exchange of breaks with a commanding lead and played clean tennis when it mattered most, striking just eight unforced errors in the final set to Gauff’s 18.

Serving out the win in just over two hours, Pegula will take on Sabalenka for the third time in three months in the hopes of remaining undefeated in round-robin play and advancing into the final four.

Gauff will need to play more consistent tennis in her next match against Jasmine Paolini, having struck a total 45 unforced errors off the forehand side alone and 17 double faults.