Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula finally finished their last round-robin doubles match at the 2023 WTA Finals, but it was a losing effort.
One day after crashing out from the WTA Finals in singles, Coco Gauff is now out of the doubles as well. She shared the loss today with the person who beat her yesterday - Jessica Pegula and it was unfortunate.
This match started a couple of days ago but was abandoned due to rain, only to be completed today. It was a strange match from start to finish. It literally opened with a bat stopping play, only for rain to stop play altogether after the first set.
Pegula and Gauff won that opening set 6-3, but then, upon returning, it was their opponents who played better. Vera Zvonareva and Laura Siegemund broke first, taking a 4-2 lead, but then lost their serve, giving their opponents another chance.
While Pegula and Gauff broke back to make it 4-4, they would lose their serve once more and lose the second set 4-6.
The decider set was obviously a super tie-break played until 10, and it was once again the Russian-German combination that got it done. They were up for much of it but saw a late surge from Pegula and Gauff to battle back from 8-5 to 8-5.
Still, it wasn't enough as they lost the next two points to lose the match. This loss greatly benefits Jessica Pegula, who is obviously in the WTA Finals singles final after beating Gauff yesterday.
Had they won this match today, they would have had to play another one later today, and that's not the kind of energy expenditure Pegula needs ahead of the final tomorrow.
It also gives Gauff a chance to head home sooner after a pretty solid outing in Cancun that saw her reach the singles semi-final and narrowly miss out on the semi-final in the doubles. Certainly better than last year.