By Field Level Media
Nov 09 (Field Level Media) - No. 4 seed Coco Gauff opened the WTA Finals with a stellar 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 victory over No. 5 seed and fellow American Jessica Pegula on Sunday in Indian Wells, Calif.
Gauff saved 7 of 11 break points while breaking Pegula's serve seven times in 16 chances. Pegula saved one match point in the 12th game of the second set on her way to forcing the tiebreaker, but Gauff won the first three games of the decisive set and never looked back.
Gauff earned
a valuable victory to kick off the round-robin group stage. Gauff is the highest-seeded player in Group 1 following the withdrawal of World No. 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan due to a viral illness.
Rybakina's replacement, Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, carries a No. 9 seed and faced Czech eighth seed Linda Noskova in the day's other match. Noskova cruised 6-2, 6-4, converting all four of her opportunities to break Kostyuk's serve.
Group 2 of the season-ending event features Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, Mirra Andreeva of Russia, Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic
Hong Kong Open
Southern California native Claire Liu won her first WTA Tour event, stunning No. 2 seed Alexandra Eala 6-3, 6-0 in Hong Kong.
Liu, 26, needed just 93 minutes to win the match. Entering the week, she was ranked No. 102 in the standings.
The two exchanged service breaks early in the first set. Serving at 4-3, Eala was broken again, giving Liu a chance to close the opener with three consecutive game wins.
The second set opened with a marathon first game that went to deuce 11 times. Liu took the game -- one of five service breaks on the day -- and Eala couldn't respond. Liu closed out the match by winning nine consecutive games.
Still, Eala, a 21-year-old from the Philippines, will rise to No. 15 when the new rankings come out. She has one career win, victorious in Washington D.C, in August. Eala fell to 1-2 in WTA Tour finals.
Chennai Open
Rain postponed the final between Indonesian No. 1 seed Janice Tjen and Polish No. 3 Magda Linette.
Instead, Tjen and Linette will face off Monday morning in India.
(--Field Level Media)
