Coco Gauff downs Jessica Pegula to win second Cincinnati title
Coco Gauff (No 4) blitzed Jessica Pegula (No 3) 6-2, 6-4 to win a second Cincinnati title, joining an elite Open Era club – and repeating the script that preceded her first Grand Slam.
Coco Gauff, Cincinnati 2026 | © Jeff Dean /Wick Photography for Cincinnati Open
She was in a class of her own this week, and proved it in the last match. American Coco Gauff, the No. 4 seed, beat compatriot Jessica Pegula, the No. 3 seed, 6-2, 6-4 in the Cincinnati Open final on Sunday night. The result made Gauff, at 22, only the third woman in the Open Era to win the Cincinnati title more than once, joining Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka.
The win was Gauff’s 12th career title and her fourth at WTA 1000 level, adding a second Cincinnati crown to her collection after her first in 2023. It also moved her to 2-0 against Pegula in 2026, took her season win total to 40 and delivered her fourth top-10 victory of the year and 37th of her career. Gauff has now won nine of her last 10 matches.
The title revived a familiar pattern. Gauff’s first Cincinnati title, in 2023, was followed weeks later by her maiden Grand Slam trophy at the U.S. Open, and this year’s run left her heading into New York in similar form.
The numbers back up the story of the final. Gauff broke Pegula’s serve five times from six break points, while Pegula’s only two conversions both came at the same juncture in each set – to get to 5-2 in the first and 5-4 in the second – and both were erased immediately by a Gauff break in reply.
Gauff’s outrageous domination
Despite a higher first-serve percentage (64% to 55%), Pegula won only 46% of points on her opening delivery, well below Gauff’s 67%, a sign of how much trouble Gauff’s return caused all match. Gauff finished with 61% of points won on serve to Pegula’s 48%, and an even wider gap on return, 52% to 39%, for an overall 62-48 points advantage.
Gauff broke immediately for a 2-0 lead, needed just three games to move 3-0, then broke again in a marathon deuce game to open a double-break advantage at 4-0. She served out a fifth straight game to go up 5-0 before Pegula finally got on the board. Pegula broke back to close to 5-2, but Gauff sealed the opener 6-2 by breaking straight back.
The second set followed almost the same pattern. Gauff broke immediately again for 2-0, held through deuce for 3-0, then extended to 5-2. Pegula clawed back, breaking Gauff’s serve to reach 5-4, but exactly as in the first set, Gauff answered at once, breaking for a third time in the match to close it out 6-4 and complete the title.
