Defending champion Coco Gauff will face fellow American Jessica Pegula in her tournament opener at the 2025 WTA Finals on Sunday, November 2. For several months, Gauff was in a slump following her second Major title victory at the French Open.
The World No. 3 hit top form in October, just in time for the year-end championships in Riyadh, reaching the semifinals at the China Open and securing her 11th career WTA singles title at the Wuhan Open. The 21-year-old, who has a 6-6 win/loss record at the elite tournament, will be eager to get her bid of reaching the last four for the third time in her career off to a good start.
Pegula, meanwhile, has displayed impressive consistency yet again in 2025. The World No. 5 recorded eight tournaments where she reached at least the semifinals, winning three of them (ATX Open, Bad Homburg Open, and Charleston Open).
However, her lack of title victories at the big tournaments this year is certainly a cause for worry, even considering the fact that she finished runner-up at the WTA Finals two years ago. Like Gauff, the nine-time singles titlist is also making her fourth career appearance at the year-end championships.
Coco Gauff vs Jessica Pegula Match Details
Date: Nov. 2, 2025
Tournament: WTA Finals 2025
Round: Round-robin
Venue: King Saud University Indoor Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Category: WTA Finals
Surface: Indoor Hardcourt
Live Telecast: Tennis Channel, TSN, Sky Sports
Gauff vs Pegula Head-to-Head
Jessica Pegula leads Coco Gauff 4-3 in their head-to-head meetings on the WTA Tour. While the 31-year-old has defeated her younger rival in three of their five hardcourt clashes, the latter came out on top of their last two encounters at this year’s Wuhan Open and last year’s WTA Finals.
Gauff vs Pegula Prediction
Coco Gauff has won the highest percentage of first and second return points in the top 100 WTA rankings at an impressive 49.1%, meaning she wins virtually every second point during her opponent’s service games. This stat underlines her return supremacy, and while she has her share of hiccups on serve, the American has the rare ability to hit big serves on crucial points. With her serve-return dynamics being good enough to bail her out of trouble, she will focus on being the aggressor during long rallies against Jessica Pegula, who is herself great at counterpunching.
Pegula, meanwhile, has won 38.4% and 61.4% of her first-return and first-serve points in 2025, respectively. While these numbers aren’t outright impressive, they have allowed her to stay in tough matches when her game has misfired. The World No. 5’s consistency will give her enough chances to take revenge over Gauff for her lackluster 4-6, 5-7 title match defeat in the Wuhan Open final last month.
The keys for both players in this match-up will be to win a respectable percentage of their first-serve points while maintaining a healthy winners-to-unforced errors ratio. Pegula is less experienced with the playing conditions at the King Saud Arena, as she withdrew from last year’s WTA Finals after just one match due to injury. In that regard, 2024 champion Gauff is the overwhelming favorite to win their eighth career encounter on Sunday.
Prediction: Coco Gauff to win in straight sets.