Coco Gauff loses Dubai opener, Jessica Pegula wins through rain delay

DUBAI—Coco Gauff became the first big upset victim of the 2025 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, enduring a 6-4, 7-5 defeat to fellow American McCartney Kessler on Tuesday.

Gauff, the No. 3 seed, followed Jessica Pegula onto Court 1 after an hours-long rain delay forced organizers to reschedule the 2023 US Open champion off of Center Court. The outer court proved luckier for Pegula, who finished off Liudmila Samsonova, 6-0, 6-4.

“I’m just happy it’s over!” Pegula told me after a long day on and off the court.

For the 25-year-old Kessler, defeating Gauff marks a new milestone in her still-young career, having played a full career of college tennis at the University of Florida. Since making her WTA debut in 2024, Kessler has already won two WTA titles—including one earlier this season at the Hobart International.

She spoke about being inspired by her fellow Americans after defeating Qatar TotalEnergies Open champion Amanda Anisimova in the first round on Monday.

“They definitely give me motivation, like I know that they’re doing well and maybe I can do well, too,” she told me after cooling off the on-fire Anisimova. “That inspired and motivated me to do the same or do even better. It’s competitive where you want your fellow Americans to win, but you’re also competing to see if you can do better.”

For Gauff, the loss ends an unsatisfactory Middle East campaign with zero wins and two defeats in Dubai and Doha, where she lost to Ukrainian rival Marta Kostyuk. After starting the 2025 season with a United Cup title and 9-0 record, the world No. 3 hasn’t won a match since stumbling in her Australian Open quarterfinal to Paula Badosa.

While Kessler is surging and Gauff is falling behind, No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula is holding steady in the Middle East after a less-than-spectacular start to her season. After a quarterfinal finish in Doha, the 2024 US Open finalist is on track for another in Dubai after withstanding a late fight-back from Samsonova following the lengthy bout of inclement weather.

“The beginning of the match was crazy, just standing on court waiting,” Pegula recalled after the match. “It would dry, start sprinkling, dry again. I think at one point we were standing on the court longer than we had actually been playing!

“We got a big break there, and that’s when conditions changed drastically from having to play earlier in the day. I’m just glad I was able to handle all that really well and start with a break right when we came back. I was able to keep that momentum throughout the whole match.”

Pegula’s next match will be against Czech talent Linda Niskova while Kessler will next face either 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu or 2023 Roland Garros runner-up Karolina Muchova.