Mirra Andreeva beat Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-4 in Indian Wells on Saturday to reach the WTA Finals championship match on her debut. FINAL: Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 6-4, Jessica Pegula. The 19-year-old has not dropped a set in four matches at the season-ending event, and the numbers behind the run put her in company the tournament has not seen in more than two decades.
How to watch: WTA Finals final, Sunday, November 15 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, California
Opponent: The winner of Saturday’s second semifinal, Elina Svitolina vs Linda Noskova
Broadcast note: The WTA lists the championship matches as simulcasting free on Tennis Channel 2
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Mirra Andreeva WTA Finals Final: The Records Behind The Run
The semifinal win carried three separate pieces of history. The WTA’s official match report records that Andreeva is the youngest player to reach the final since Maria Sharapova in 2004, and that she is only the third player, joining Serena Williams and Chris Evert, to win her first four matches at the WTA Finals in straight sets. She had already become the youngest semifinalist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009.
The game count is the sharpest measure of the week. Andreeva has won 48 games and dropped just 18 across her four matches, the fewest games dropped on the way to the final since the round-robin format was introduced in 2003. She has not lost more than four games in any of the eight sets she has played. A win on Sunday would make her the seventh teenager to lift the WTA Finals trophy, and the first since Sharapova won the title at 17 in 2004.
Breaks Down In Both Sets, Answers Both Times
This was the first ever meeting between world No. 3 Andreeva and No. 5 Pegula, and the American started each set in front. Pegula broke for 2-1 in the first set after an Andreeva double fault, but the reply was immediate: a down-the-line forehand winner to extend a deuce game, then a cross-court winner on the run on break point to get back on serve. Andreeva saved two break points to lead 3-2, broke again late in the set, and served it out at 5-3 in just under 45 minutes as Pegula’s unforced errors mounted.
The second set followed the same shape. Pegula broke early again for 3-1, Andreeva broke straight back and held to level at 3-3, then took control on the return, breaking the American four times in the match. That return pressure mattered against a player who had hit a career-high 16 aces against Noskova in the group stage. Pegula held at 5-4 to stop a run of four straight Andreeva games, but Andreeva served out the match to complete the win in one hour and 25 minutes, her 54th victory of the season. She won 77 percent of points behind her first serve and hit 17 winners.
Afterwards, Andreeva said the calm surprised even her. “I did not feel one bit of pressure today, I don’t know why,” she told Sky Sports, in comments reported by the BBC. “Usually I feel like on these important points or when I have to close out the match or the set I get so tight. But for some reason today I was just playing. I was just not thinking about anything, just trying to enjoy.”
A Perfect Group Run Built The Semifinal
Saturday’s result was the fourth straight-set win of a debut week that never really wobbled. Andreeva opened by beating Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0, then produced the result of the group stage against world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka: down 4-1 in the first set, she won the last 11 games to close it 6-4, 6-0 in 62 minutes. She finished group play by beating alternate Diana Shnaider 6-2, 6-1, completing a 3-0 sweep of Group 2 while dropping only 11 games in the round robin.
The French Open champion arrived in Indian Wells under coach Conchita Martinez with three titles this season, and the serve that was once the developing part of her game has become a weapon across this week. Pegula, a WTA Finals finalist in 2023 and one of the most experienced players in the field, was meeting her for the first time and never found a sustained answer once the early breaks were handed back.
Year-End No. 2 Secured, One Match From The Title
The semifinal win also settles the rankings race below the top spot: the BBC reports that victory over Pegula ensures Andreeva will finish the year as world No. 2. That is the frame for Sunday’s final. She faces either Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova or former WTA Finals champion Elina Svitolina, who met in Saturday’s second semifinal, with the biggest title of her career on the line.
Whichever opponent comes through, Andreeva goes in unbeaten, set-perfect, and holding a games record that has stood since the current format began. Twenty-two years after Sharapova’s teenage title run, the WTA Finals final has a teenager in it again, and she has reached it without dropping a set.
