Gauff Fights Back From 5-1 Down to Beat Kostyuk at WTA Finals

Coco Gauff was 5-1 down in the second set against Marta Kostyuk. Then she won six games in a row and beat her 6-4, 7-5 at the WTA Finals, the season-ending event for the world's leading women's players.

A 5-1 deficit is dangerous in tennis. A player who leads 5-1 needs just one more game to win the set. Gauff did not let that happen. She had done something similar earlier in the same tournament, when she came back from 5-1 down to beat Jessica Pegula.

The match was not easy on her body. Gauff received treatment for a lower back injury during the contest. Kostyuk was also hampered, having been treated for a wrist injury that has troubled her since August. Kostyuk was not in the original line-up. She entered the event as a late replacement after Elena Rybakina withdrew.

Gauff's serve was the weak point. She hit nine double faults, which means she missed her serve twice in a row nine times, giving her opponent a free point each time. She hit only one ace, a serve the opponent could not get a racket on. Winning a match with that count is hard, and Gauff did it by holding her nerve in the big moments.

The win does not put her through yet. The WTA Finals is split into groups, with the top two in each group moving on to the semi-finals, the last four players in the tournament. Gauff needs Linda Noskova to beat Jessica Pegula in the final group match. If Noskova wins, Gauff goes through. If not, Gauff's tournament ends there.

That is the odd part of tennis at this level. Gauff controlled her own comeback, but she cannot control the result of a match she is not playing in. She has to watch the other court and hope.

For the casual fan, the story is simple. Gauff was losing, she found a way back, and now her chances depend on someone else's match. Kostyuk, playing through a sore wrist, gave her a real fight for both sets.