Coco Gauff serves up alarming stats as reigning WTA Finals champ falls to Jessica Pegula defeat
Coco Gauff’s serve and forehand struggles reared their ugly head as the reigning WTA Finals champion saw her title defence get off to a losing start against compatriot Jessica Pegula.
After three one-sided matches to start the year-end championships in Riyadh, Pegula and Gauff produced the first three-set singles match of the competition in a gritty and gruelling affair in Riyadh.
However, after splitting the opening two sets, it was fifth seed Pegula who ultimately prevailed, winning the final four games of the match to claim a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2 victory at the start of her campaign.
While Gauff won the title in 2024, Pegula lost two round-robin matches before withdrawing from the event due to injury, meaning this win already improves on her campaign from last season.
“Today was a really tough match,” said the 31-year-old, speaking to Sky Sports.
“Coco’s a really great champion. She makes you win, she makes you have to beat her and problem solve. She was serving really well there for a [bit], especially in the second.
“I felt like I just changed a few things. Honestly, it wasn’t much. I felt like I was playing the right way, I had my chances to honestly win in the second.
“I’m glad that I wasn’t too discouraged [after set two] and got off to a good start in the third.”
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Victory for Pegula, her first at the WTA Finals since beating Gauff in the 2023 semi-finals, sees her book a clash versus top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the next phase of round-robin matches.
World No 1 Sabalenka got her own campaign off to a strong start with a 6-3, 6-1 win over eighth seed Jasmine Paolini earlier on Sunday, and will be looking for revenge against Pegula after falling to the American in the semi-final of the Wuhan Open last month.
However, Gauff will have to reset dramatically before her second WTA Finals match against Paolini on Tuesday.
After strong service performances throughout her victorious Wuhan Open campaign, the 21-year-old was far from convincing in her first Riyadh match, hitting a staggering 17 double faults across the contest.
Though, as Pegula noted, her serve was better in stages of the second set, she still hit three consecutive double faults when failing to serve out the set at 6-5 up, and her overall first serve percentage was down at 54% for the match.
Gauff’s forehand also proved troublesome, with 45 unforced errors from that wing across the contest, and she will hope for dramatic improvement in her next match.
The American beat Paolini on her way to the title in Wuhan, though she had previously tasted defeat to the eighth seed at the Cincinnati Open, Italian Open, and Stuttgart Open earlier this year.
