Jessica Pegula saved a match point to beat Linda Noskova 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-5 at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells on Thursday, reaching the semifinals of the season-ending championship and ending Coco Gauff's campaign.
Noskova, the Wimbledon champion, held a match point with Pegula serving at 4-5 in the deciding set after the American double-faulted to hand her the opening. Pegula steadied herself, held serve to level at 5-5, broke Noskova in the next game and closed out the contest on her first match point in two hours and 45 minutes.
Pegula struck a career-high 16 aces, while Noskova — who had already secured a semifinal place before the match — hit 15 double faults. "I needed to survive – I saved a match point, I forgot about that," Pegula said in her on-court interview.
The result left Noskova, Pegula and Gauff all at 2-1 in Group 1, with the places decided on sets won: Noskova finished first at 5-2, Pegula second at 5-3 and Gauff third at 4-3, despite Gauff beating Marta Kostyuk earlier on Thursday. Pegula is the first player since Simona Halep in 2019 to win a WTA Finals match after saving a match point, and it is her third semifinal appearance at the event after 2023 and 2025.
Pegula will face Mirra Andreeva, the Group 2 winner, in Saturday's semifinal — the first meeting between the two. Noskova will play the winner of Friday's final round-robin match in Group 2 between Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina.
The WTA Finals, the season-ending championship featuring the year's leading players, is being played at Indian Wells with a prize fund of $10 million, having been moved from Saudi Arabia because of the war in the Middle East involving Iran. The semifinals take place on Saturday, with the final scheduled for Sunday.
