Jessica Pegula comments on having to face Coco Gauff so early at the WTA Finals

Jessica Pegula will face her compatriot Coco Gauff in her opening match at this year’s WTA Finals.

Pegula has already been a big topic of conversation ahead of the WTA Finals this year, after her remarks about Mirra Andreeva were overheard in streamed practice footage.

It appears that this has now been quashed, with Pegula and Andreeva poking fun at the situation on social media, with the attention now turning to the tennis being played in Indian Wells.

Pegula will face Gauff in her opening match at the WTA Finals this year, and she has spoken about how she thinks the placement of the match could impact the outcome.

Jessica Pegula suggests Coco Gauff plays better in later stages of tournaments

Pegula and Gauff are both top five ranked players on the WTA Tour, and therefore are used to playing each other in the latter stages of tournaments. However, with the round-robin stage at the WTA Finals, they will be playing each other in their first match at the tournament.

When asked about facing Gauff in her first match at the WTA Finals, Pegula spoke about the level her fellow American had played at in their recent matches, before suggesting that she usually raises it at the latter stages of tournaments.

“I think, yeah, that the few times I’ve played her this year, I felt like she played at a very high level,” Pegula said about Gauff in her pre-tournament press conference. “I felt like she played really great tennis. I didn’t feel like we had any kind of, like — I don’t know. Sometimes you play someone, you both know you’re not playing well, it’s a weird level, awkward, whatever.

“I feel like in Wimbledon, Cincinnati especially, she played at a really high level. Especially at Wimbledon towards [the] end of the second, and third set. I think right from the start in Cincinnati.

“I don’t know. I mean, I think it will be a little bit different maybe that we’re playing in a first round first match here, where sometimes I do think when she gets into a rhythm deeper in a tournament, I feel like she always plays better, which is probably why her Finals record is very successful. I don’t know if she’s even lost a Final.

“Stuff like that could play a part. But honestly I have no idea. Like, we’ll see how it goes. You never know what’s going to happen out there. Like you said, we know each other’s game so well. We know what we’re going to try to do, try and change. Yeah, we’ll just see when we get out there if we’re able to kind of execute what we want to.

“If one of us changes or is trying to do something different, how well we can react to that, as well. I think it will be interesting. I think we played first round last year, too, which I kind of forgot about that. Yeah, I remember we played first round. It was three sets, too.”

Pegula and Gauff have played 10 times before, with the head-to-head currently level at five wins apiece. This includes two matches this year at Wimbledon and in the final of the Cincinnati Open, with Gauff on the winning side of both. Pegula and Gauff have also played at the WTA Finals three times before, with the former winning two of those three matches.

Coco Gauff says what she finds ‘difficult’ about playing Jessica Pegula

Gauff was also asked about her upcoming encounter against Pegula, and whether she finds it easier or more difficult to face someone she knows so well. Gauff suggested that it was the latter, as she highlighted the mental aspect of it.

“I think it’s more complicated in a sense,” Gauff said in her own press conference. “I mean, obviously it’s good to play someone that you already faced before. I mean, new matchups are always difficult.

“But I feel like when you get to the point where you’ve played someone so many times, that’s where it becomes really more difficult, just because of the fact that you got to capitalise on the things you do well, but also know they’re going to change things, vice versa.

“We know each other’s games. I feel like tennis is already mental. When you play somebody so many times, it becomes even more mental because you’re both trying to figure out to go away from your own patterns, because they know your patterns. If that makes sense…”

Gauff and Pegula are part of Group 1 alongside world number one Elena Rybakina and Linda Noskova. Gauff and Pegula will follow Rybakina and Noskova in their opening match at the WTA Finals on Sunday, November 8.