INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — With opening day losses on Sunday at the 2026 FAGE WTA Finals, Tuesday’s second round-robin match between [5] Jessica Pegula and [ALT] [9] Marta Kostyuk was essential to keep either player’s hopes alive at Indian Wells.
With a 6-2, 7-5 victory in one hour and 29 minutes, Pegula remains in contention to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament. The straight-sets victory was exactly what she needed after enduring a physical battle with compatriot Coco Gauff to open her campaign, and she’ll prepare for Linda Noskova in a Berlin final rematch on Thursday.
Marta Kostyuk is eliminated from knockout round contention as a result of two straight-set losses. She’ll close her first WTA Finals against Gauff on Thursday.
“Once I got off to a good start today, I definitely didn’t want to give away that second set,” Pegula said to media. “In general I wouldn’t want to, but I think it was a bit of an extra push to be able to give myself the best chance in this group, considering I did lose the first match.”
Similar to her defeat to Noskova, Kostyuk struggled out of the gates. Pegula won the first nine points of the match, breaking her opponent at love in the opening game, though Kostyuk strung a few points together to remain down a break at the second changeover. Pegula won the first set 6-2 in a half hour, similar to Noskova’s first set against Kostyuk on Sunday.
Pegula dictacted many of the rallies as Kostyuk racked up 17 unforced errors to Pegula’s three in the opening set.
“I saw that she’s changing pace a lot, and I would struggle sometimes,” Kostyuk said. “Overall, think I was pretty happy with my return today. You can obviously be better, everything can be better. Next time, maybe I’ll be more ready.”
Pegula said she noticed Kostyuk’s struggles early on in the match and realized it wasn’t the highest level that she’s seen from Kostyuk, who won both of their previous two 2026 encounters at Brisbane and Madrid.
However, Kostyuk entered this tournament under different circumstances. Having dealt with a right-wrist injury during the Asian Swing, her first match against Noskova was just her second day she felt “pain free,” she said.
Pegula lauded her serve as a key to success Tuesday, winning 76% of her first service points and landing 60% of her first serves.
“I served better today than I have, and she’s such a good returner,” Pegula said. “She puts so much pressure on the return. I think it’s one of the best things she does. I’ve been working a lot on serving against girls who return very aggressively, how to mitigate that and just deal with that a little bit better.”
As for Kostyuk, her serve has been her Achilles’ heel across her first two matches, totaling 15 doubles faults, nine of which came Tuesday. Kostyuk said Sunday that she’ll likely adjust her serve in some format in the offseason as a result of the wrist injury she’s been recovering from.
Following the trend of her first match, Kostyuk was more competitive as the match progressed, picking up a couple breaks in the second set. She fended off a couple break point opportunities from Pegula, holding at 5-4 with a crucial ace.
Just as she found her rhythm, Kostyuk gifted Pegula a chance to serve for the match with a costly double fault at 6-5. Pegula did just that, earning her first win against player in her group this season.