Indian Wells: Coco Gauff kicked off her WTA Finals campaign with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 win over Jessica Pegula in 2 hours, 39 minutes here on Monday  night.

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. The 2024 champion has won eight matches at the event during that stretch.

Gauff broke in the final game of the opening set to move ahead, then rallying from a 5-1 deficit in the second and holding match point at 6-5 before Pegula saved it and forced a deciding set by taking a high-level tiebreak.

Gauff seized control from there, breaking serve in the opening game of the third set and racing to a 3-0 lead. She earned another break a few games later and cruised to her sixth win over Pegula,” WTA reports.

With the win, Gauff improved to 1-0 in Group 1 play and extended her winning streak against Pegula to three matches. Notably, all of those wins came in this season.

Gauff will next face Linda Noskova, who beat Marta Kostyuk in straight sets earlier. Pegula, meanwhile, will take on Kostyuk, who won both meetings between the two this season in Brisbane and Madrid.

Noskova’s win was her third straight over Kostyuk, and it gave the Wimbledon champion a winning start in her WTA Finals debut.

Elsewhere, Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini and the team of Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez opened their WTA Finals campaigns with victories in their first Group 2 matches.

Errani and Paolini recorded their first career win over second seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, while Bucsa and Melichar-Martinez made a winning debut as a team at the WTA Finals with a straight-set victory over Ellen Perez and Demi Schuurs.

Errani and Paolini, seeking to reach their first semifinal as a team at the WTA Finals in their third consecutive appearance at the season-ending event, have enjoyed a successful 2026 season, winning titles at the US Open, Roland Garros, Madrid, Miami and Indian Wells. IANS