Former doubles partners Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff will meet in the Cincinnati Open final in what will be the first all-American showpiece match in 56 years.
Third seed Pegula survived a tricky encounter against defending champion Iga Swiatek to reach her ninth WTA 1000 final while fourth seed Gauff eased past giant-killer Sara Bejlek to secure an eighth final at this level.
Both players are looking to win their 12th WTA Tour singles title while Pegula is eyeing a fifth WTA 1000 trophy and Gauff a fourth.
Rosy Casals won the last all-American final in Cincinnati when she defeated Nancy Richey in three sets in 1970 while Gauff is the most recent American winner of the title as she lifted the trophy in 2023.
Pegula, meanwhile, finished runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka in 2024.
WTA News
“I’m always rooting for American tennis. We all get along so well. I think it would be awesome if it was Coco and I in a final,” Pegula said.
“We’ve played in finals before, and I think, win or lose, to me, like looking back on my career, I think like to play someone that I get along with and that I have a lot of respect for in Coco would be really cool and memorable.”
Two-time Grand Slam winner Gauff was equally complimentary about her fellow American.
“Jess is a great person. She was one of the older players who, when I arrived on the tour, was very kind to me from the beginning,” she said.
“It’s something I have a lot of respect for. We had a very tough match at Wimbledon and I imagine tomorrow will be another very difficult match.”
What Time Is The Final?
Traditionally, women’s tennis finals take place before men’s showpiece matches, but Cincinnati Open organisers are doing things differently as the Arthur Fils-Frances Tiafoe ATP final will be staged before the Pegula-Gauff encounter.
The day’s action will start with the men’s doubles final between Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos and Constantin Frantzen and Robin Haase with the men’s final following immediately.
If all goes according to plan, then the Fils-Tiafoe encounter will get underway at 16:30 (20:30 GMT/21:30 BST).
The Pegula and Gauff showpiece match is scheduled to start at 19:00 in Mason (23:00 GMT/0:00 BST).
Prize Money On Offer
The winner will receive a cheque of $1,085,200 while the finalist will go home with $564,920.
Gauff has already earned $34,195,677 during her career and sits at No 10 in the all-time prize money list while Pegula is at No 25 with career earnings of $25,333,584.
Head-To-Head
Pegula leads the rivalry 5-4, but Gauff won their most recent encounter 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. However, that was on the grass at Wimbledon in July.
In terms of their hard-court results, Pegula leads the H2H 4-2 with their most recent match on the surface taking place in the round-robin phase of the 2025 WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia with the 32-year-old winning 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2.
The post Jessica Pegula v Coco Gauff: Match start time, prize money and head-to-head record appeared first on Tennis365.
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