Pegula beats Noskova from match point down to earn spot in FAGE WTA Finals semis

Down match point to Linda Noskova, Jessica Pegula found herself on the brink of elimination from the FAGE WTA Finals on Thursday at Indian Wells. But as she's done many times in the past, she found a way back.

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Pegula saved the match point and earned the decisive break at 6-5 in the third set before securing her place in the semifinals of the year-end championships with a 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-5 victory in 2 hours, 45 minutes. She is the first player to win a WTA Finals match after saving match point since Simona Halep in 2019.

"I just kept telling myself, 'This could be your last match for the year, so go out and compete, and you can hold your head high for the rest of the year," Pegula told reporters. "But I definitely wanted another chance to still be here."

With the win, Pegula finished 2-1 in Group 1 play to grab the second transfer spot over compatriot Coco Gauff due to her advantage in sets won (five to four). It marks her third WTA Finals semifinal appearance after previous trips in 2023 and 2025. 

It's the first time she's reached the stage after losing her opening round-robin match.

One of the catalysts of Pegula's victory was a career-high 16 aces, surpassing her previous best of 14 against... Noskova in Berlin earlier this season.

"It wasn't feeling that great the first few days here, but it was feeling better the last couple days in practice," Pegula said. "I think I just went out and I trusted it. But there were still ups and downs. At times, I don't think either of us were serving that great. Our first-serve percentages were pretty low.

"In the second set, mine dropped quite a bit and I felt like that definitely got her back in the match. She was getting way more looks on my second serve and took her chances to be really aggressive, and I think that got her into a really good rhythm going into the third set."

Indeed, Pegula's first-serve percentage dropped from 61% in the first set to 50% in the second, which opened the door for Noskova to get back into the match after the American took a back-and-forth opening set in a tiebreak. Securing the second set ensured that Noskova would finish at the top of Group 1 regardless of the match's outcome, but if the Czech was aware of that fact, she didn't show it.

Instead, she immediately raced to a 2-0 lead in the decider.

After Noskova held for 5-4, Pegula double-faulted to hand her opponent a match point, but Pegula rediscovered her form on serve just in time to come through with a clutch hold for 5-all. The rest is, as they say, history.

Pegula will face Mirra Andreeva in the semifinals in what is set to be their first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz meeting. The matchup will feature the fourth largest age gap between semifinalists in the history of the event -- smaller only than Billie Jean King vs. Tracy Austin (1980), Martina Navratilova vs. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (1989) and Venus Williams vs. Caroline Garcia (2017).

"It's not every day you play someone that you've never played before," Pegula said. "We've been playing a lot of matches, so it's kind of funny we've just never run into each other. We haven't even practiced together that much, either, so we're still probably a little bit unfamiliar with each other's games and that's going to be a challenge for the both of us, but she's been playing some great tennis.

"She's young and has a lot of energy. Much younger than me. So I'm happy I have an extra day tomorrow to get ready for that match."

Noskova, meanwhile, will face the winner of Friday's round-robin match between Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina.