Gauff says she never called the WTA Finals format “stupid”; Gilbert still wants the round-robin at a Masters event

Coco Gauff is out of the WTA Finals despite winning two of her three group matches, and she has used her exit to clarify the comment that made headlines earlier in the week. She says she never called the format “stupid”, which leaves her former coach Brad Gilbert’s defence of the round-robin looking less like a rebuttal and more like common ground.

What Gauff said first

After losing 6-3, 6-3 to Linda Noskova on Tuesday, Gauff faced the prospect of finishing 2-1 in her group and still missing the semi-finals on set percentage. Asked whether she would study the permutations, she called the scenarios “kinda stupid” and said “everybody knows that has to change”, as we covered in Gauff calls the WTA Finals scenarios “kinda stupid”.

That is exactly what happened. Gauff beat Marta Kostyuk on Thursday night, but Jessica Pegula’s comeback win over Noskova meant all three finished 2-1, and the tie-break on sets sent Pegula and Noskova through.

Gauff’s clarification

Speaking to Tennis Channel after the Kostyuk win, Gauff asked to set the record straight. “Can I clear that up? Okay. I wasn’t saying like the format was stupid. I was saying if you get in if you get like in your head while you’re playing into all the scenarios that’s stupid,” she said, as reported by Sportskeeda.

“But of course, everyone thought I was calling the format stupid,” she added. Her point, she explained, was that a player cannot go into a match trying to win in straight sets to satisfy a calculation, because every player wants to win in straight sets anyway.

Gilbert and Petkovic: the format is the attraction

The counter-view came from two people who know Gauff’s game well. Gilbert, who coached her from July 2023 to September 2024, argued the opposite of what Gauff appeared to be saying. “Are you ready for this? I’d actually like to see, because we’ve gone to these crazy 12-day tournaments at all these Masters events, at least one of them use this format,” he said, in comments reported by TennisUpToDate.

Andrea Petkovic agreed straight away. “Me too. I agree with you,” she said, explaining that in a sport where one defeat usually sends a player home, a group stage guarantees several matches.

Does the clarification end the debate?

Not quite. Gauff has narrowed her complaint from the format to the mental burden of scenario-watching, and on that narrower point Gilbert and Petkovic would probably agree with her: no coach wants a player calculating set ratios mid-match.

But her original remark that “everybody knows that has to change” was about the rules, not her own mindset, and her exit is the clearest possible case study for those who want change. She won two of three matches, lost on a tie-break she had no control over in the final match of the group, and still went home.

Gilbert’s position remains the stronger defence of the round-robin as a spectacle: guaranteed matches, live permutations and a final day where every set matters. Gauff’s experience is the strongest argument that the tie-breakers, if not the format itself, can feel arbitrary to the player on the wrong side of them.

For how the event’s groups and tie-breakers work, see our guide to the WTA Finals 2026 format.