Coco Gauff went down 5-1 in the second set with her back hurting. A television announcer suggested she save herself for the third set. Gauff did not. She won six straight games and kept her WTA Finals season alive.
Gauff beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 7-5 on Thursday at the FAGE WTA Finals in Indian Wells, California. The win sets up one match to decide the second American semifinalist. Jessica Pegula must beat Linda Noskova to advance. If Pegula loses, Gauff moves on.
For American tennis fans, the result turns the schedule into a single elimination match. Pegula, the No. 5 seed, faces Noskova, the No. 8 seed. A win sends Pegula through. A loss ends her tournament and sends Gauff.
How Gauff turned the match around
Gauff won the first set 6-4. In the second set, she started to feel back discomfort and called a trainer to the court. After treatment, she fell behind 5-1. A television announcer said she might be better off dropping one more game and preparing for the third set.
Gauff instead won six straight games to close out the match 7-5. She will wait to see whether it was enough.
Kostyuk, the No. 9 seed, had been eliminated before the match. She played with a right wrist injury and had dropped six straight matches. She also had 15 double faults in her first two matches at the Finals.
Noskova had already clinched a semifinal spot from Group 1 with straight-set wins over Kostyuk and Gauff. She beat Gauff in 75 minutes, breaking her five times and winning 75 percent of the points on Gauff’s second serve.
Gauff leads her head-to-head with Kostyuk 4-2. Noskova leads her head-to-head with Pegula 3-1, including a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win in the Berlin final in June.
Pegula comes in with the tiebreaker edge. Through two matches she had a set record of 3-2, compared with Gauff’s 2-3. If the three end up tied, Pegula holds the advantage.
Noskova said she was not playing the math. “Right after the match finished, I was already focusing on how I’m going to play Jessie in two days,” she said. “I still want to win.”
Gauff won the Finals in 2024. Both Americans are seeking their third semifinal appearance at the season-ending event. The WTA Finals runs Nov. 8-15 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The WTA Finals splits the top eight players into two round-robin groups. Each player plays three group matches. The top two in each group reach the semifinals. Wins carry more weight than losses, but set and game percentages break ties. That is why Pegula’s straight-set win over Kostyuk mattered.
The WTA preview laid out the scenarios before Thursday’s play. Our coverage of the Valkyries’ title run and the injury wave in the NBA follows the same thread: the cost of playing through pain.
What happens if Pegula beats Noskova?
Pegula advances to the semifinals and Gauff is eliminated. If Pegula loses, Gauff advances. The match was in progress at publication. Check back for the result.
