Jessica Pegula found herself in one of those tennis matches that was going to come down to just a couple points.
It was the last match of the group stage at the WTA Finals at Indian Wells, and advancement was on the line when Pegula took on Linda Noskova.
A Pegula win, in any form, would get her through to the knockout rounds.
A Pegula loss, because of what Coco Gauff did earlier in the day, would send her home.
Pegula didn’t make it easy, but in the end, the American star found a way.
Below, you can re-live the tiebreaker scenarios that set up the drama, and then how the match went, to know how Pegula came through in the clutch.
Tiebreaker Scenarios
Because of the prior results, this was going to be a tight finish to the group between Pegula, Noskova and Coco Gauff.
The only way for Pegula to win her WTA Finals group was to sweep Noskova 2-0 on Thursday night.
If Pegula won 2-1, she’d advance in second place in the group behind Noskova. Both of the Pegula advancement scenarios eliminated Gauff.
But because Gauff won her match earlier on Thursday, that meant Pegula couldn’t lose. A Pegula loss would send her home and allow Gauff to advance in second place of the group behind Noskova.
That was what was at stake in this group on Thursday.
Jessica Pegula-Linda Noskova Score
Pegula needed a tiebreak to win the first set — 7-6 with a 7-2 advantage in the tiebreaker.
Noskova bounced back to win the second set, 6-4.
The third set was 5-4 Noskova at one point, but Pegula knotted it at 5-5 to set up a photo finish again.
Pegula broke serve to go up 6-5, and then she served it out.
So it was 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 7-5 for Pegula. She advances to the single-elimination semifinals at the WTA Finals.
Pegula’s win forced Gauff to finish in third place in the group and have her tournament end. It was a tough break for Gauff, who herself had fallen to Noskova a day before in straight sets.
And Pegula, by the skin of her teeth, moved on.
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