Pegula through to semi-finals

ACE AFTER ACE: Jessica Pegula’s victory knocked out fellow American and former doubles partner Coco Gauff, who won her match 6-4, 7-5 to beat Marta Kostyuk

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Jessica Pegula fired a career-high 16 aces and saved a match point before winning the final three games to beat Linda Noskova 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-5 in her round-robin group at the WTA Finals on Thursday. The victory moved the American into the semi-finals to face Mirra Andreeva.

“Even with 16 aces, it just goes to show how good of a player she is because I was still barely able to win the match,” Pegula said. “I tried to keep her guessing a little bit on the serve. I think that’s why I got some free points there.”

Noskova had already advanced to the semi-finals at the US$10 million event in the Southern California desert, which was moved from Saudi Arabia because of the Iran war in the Middle East. She and Pegula went 2-1 in Group 1 play.

Linda Noskova of Czechia, left, congratulates Jessica Pegula of the US after their match during day five of the WTA Finals in Indian Wells, California, on Thursday.

Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Pegula’s victory knocked out Coco Gauff, her former doubles partner. Earlier, Gauff rallied to win the final six games and beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 7-5 in what turned out to be her final match of the year. Pegula lost to Gauff in three sets in their opening match at the season-ending championships.

In doubles, Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend advanced to the semi-finals. They were leading 6-4, 4-2 when Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Cristina Bucsa were forced to retire after Melichar-Martinez fell during a point and hurt her knee.

Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz goes into the ATP Finals as the player to beat, with the season-ending event for the year’s top eight men’s players starting on Sunday in Turin, Italy. Although Alexander Zverev won more of the big titles this year and has the No. 1 ranking, Alcaraz, who missed four months in the middle of the year due to a right wrist injury, has displayed the best form lately.

While Zverev arrives on a two-match losing streak, Alcaraz comes to Turin on a 10-match winning run after titles in Vienna and Paris and is hungry to raise the trophy at the Finals for the first time after losing to Jannik Sinner in last year’s final.

“This is a tournament that I really want to win one day,” Alcaraz said after beating Ben Shelton in the Paris Masters final last weekend. “I’m going to go this year with a lot of confidence, with a lot of information in my bag to do the things that I really wanted to improve and be better in that tournament, and I’m going to go for it.”

Sinner, the two-time defending champion, is sitting out after ending his season early due to a right knee injury.

Zverev has appeared mentally tired during his recent losses to Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti in Vienna and Paris, respectively, and not just because it is the end of the season.

“I feel like I’m the only world No. 1 in tennis history that has to explain why it’s OK for me to be world No. 1, which I find quite difficult, because I think I deserve to be where I am,” Zverev said after falling to Musetti in his Paris opener.

While Zverev claimed his first two Grand Slam titles this year and ascended to the No. 1 ranking for the first time, he has faced continuous questions about earning the top spot after injuries to Alcaraz and Sinner.

A third career title for Zverev at the Finals — preferably with a victory over Alcaraz — would go a long way toward quieting the questions.

Another player displaying top-level tennis at the end of the season is Shelton, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open.

The American beat Alcaraz in what was likely the match of the year during his run in New York, taking a fifth-set super tiebreaker to conclude a quarter-final that ended at 3:33am.