# WTA Finals Group 1 preview: Gauff, Pegula, Noskova, Kostyuk _The 2026 WTA Finals open at Indian Wells with Gauff and Pegula meeting for a fourth straight year._ - Publisher: Apex Sports News (https://apexsportsnews.in) - Canonical URL: https://apexsportsnews.in/news/wta-finals-group-1-preview-gauff-pegula-noskova-kostyuk - Author: Rohit, Sports writer (https://apexsportsnews.in/author/rohit) - Published: 2026-11-08T19:36:48.375Z - Section: Tennis > Grand Slams - Topics: WTA Finals, Jessica Pegula, Marta Kostyuk, Coco Gauff, Linda Noskova ## Summary Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula open Group 1 at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells on Sunday. Linda Noskova faces Marta Kostyuk after Elena Rybakina withdrew. ## Key takeaways - The 2026 WTA Finals begin on Sunday at Indian Wells. - Gauff and Pegula meet for the fourth consecutive year at the event. - Noskova plays Kostyuk after Rybakina's withdrawal. - Gauff and Pegula are separated by three points for year-end No. 4. ## Article The 2026 WTA Finals begin on Sunday at Indian Wells, with two singles matches opening the round-robin stage in Group 1. Fourth seed Coco Gauff and fifth seed Jessica Pegula of the United States meet for a fourth straight year at the event. Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic faces Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine after Elena Rybakina withdrew on the eve of the tournament. The WTA Finals is the season-ending championship of the WTA Tour and is the most significant tennis event in the women's annual calendar after the four majors. It features the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams based on their results throughout the season. The 2026 WTA Finals is scheduled to run from November 8 to 15, 2026, in Indian Wells, United States, and will be the 55th edition of the singles event and the 50th edition of the doubles competition. ## Rybakina withdrawal and its impact Elena Rybakina’s withdrawal on the eve of the WTA Finals in Indian Wells left Group 1 without its favourite and guaranteed a new champion. Nobody has defended the WTA Finals title since Serena Williams in 2014, and that will not change this year. Gauff, champion in 2024, is the only former winner left in Group 1. Elina Svitolina, champion in 2018, plays in Group 2. Rybakina, the defending champion, had won more titles (four), matches (54) and top-10 matches (10) than any other player this season, and had never lost to Noskova. She said in a statement released by the WTA on Saturday that her body was not physically ready to compete. Kostyuk, 24, ranked No. 10, replaces Rybakina as the first alternate and makes her WTA Finals debut against Noskova. Kostyuk played the best season of her career. She won her first WTA 1000 title in Madrid, beating Mirra Andreeva in the final, and added a title in Rouen. She also reached her first two Grand Slam semi-finals, at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. Most of that came on clay, where she went 16-1 this year. On hard courts, her record stands at 14-10. ## Noskova versus Kostyuk Noskova leads their head-to-head 2-1. She beat Kostyuk in the Wimbledon semi-finals on her way to the title. She beat her again in the last 16 of the US Open. Kostyuk's only victory came in the Madrid quarterfinals, where she dominated the deciding stages to win 7-6, 6-0. Their US Open encounter was considerably closer, with Noskova prevailing 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. Noskova, 21, is one of three debutants at the event, with Andreeva and Karolina Muchova. She won back-to-back grass titles in Berlin and at Wimbledon, beating Muchova in the finals. She entered the top 10 in June and rose to a career-high No. 6 in August. Only Rybakina hit more aces this season, 438 to Noskova’s 347. The Czech has not played since losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16 in Beijing in September. Noskova said at media day, “It’s the most competitive tournament that one can play in a year. ” Twelve players have lost a round-robin match and gone on to win the title. Gauff was the most recent, in 2024. ## Gauff versus Pegula Gauff and Pegula are separated by three points in the race for year-end No. 4, with 5,763 for Gauff and 5,760 for Pegula. Each round-robin win is worth 200 points. Their head-to-head stands at 5-5. They meet at the WTA Finals for a fourth consecutive year, with Pegula leading 2-1 at the event. Only Agnieszka Radwanska and Petra Kvitova (2011-2015), and Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver (1983-1986), had faced each other at four or more editions in a row. Gauff won both of their meetings in 2026, in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and in the Cincinnati final, her only title of the season. Pegula has put together a more prolific season in terms of titles, lifting trophies in Dubai and Charleston while recording 50 victories. She also reached the semifinals of last year's WTA Finals and previously finished runner-up in 2023. Gauff enters the tournament as the reigning Cincinnati champion. Her campaign also included finals in Miami and Rome, semifinal appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open, and another consistent run among the leading players. ## Schedule Local time (PT), 21:00 CET for the first match. Seeds in brackets. Gauff plays Pegula in the second singles match. ### Group 1 key figures | Player | Seed | Ranking | 2026 record | 2026 titles | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Coco Gauff | 4 | No. 4 | 47-15 | 1 | | Jessica Pegula | 5 | No. 5 | 50-14 | 2 | | Linda Noskova | 8 | No. 8 | | | | Marta Kostyuk | | No. 10 | | | ### By the numbers | Statistic | Coco Gauff | Jessica Pegula | | --- | --- | --- | | Age | 22 | 32 | | 2026 record | 47-15 | 50-14 | | 2026 titles | 1 | 2 | | Best WTA Finals result | Champion (2024) | Runner-up (2023) | | Head-to-head | 5 | 5 | ### Related on Apex Sports News - [FFWS 2026 Global Finals: Day 1 matches played as Group A faced Group B](https://apexsportsnews.in/news/ffws-2026-global-finals-day-1-matches-played-as-group-a-faced-group-b) - [Rybakina withdraws from WTA Finals at Indian Wells](https://apexsportsnews.in/news/rybakina-withdraws-from-wta-finals-at-indian-wells) ### Sources - [wtatennis.com](https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4606109/wta-finals-day-1-preview-gauff-pegula-set-for-all-american-battle-at-indian-wells) - [tennismajors.com](https://www.tennismajors.com/wta-tour-news/wta-finals/without-rybakina-gauff-and-pegula-meet-in-wta-finals-group-1-with-no-4-on-the-line-866360.html) - [Photo: Rick Munroe, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coco_Gauff_Miami_Open.jpg) --- Source: Apex Sports News, https://apexsportsnews.in/news/wta-finals-group-1-preview-gauff-pegula-noskova-kostyuk. 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