(Charleston) Top-seed Jessica Pegula advanced to the semifinals at the Charleston Open on Friday, winning 6-3, 7-6(6) over Paula Badosa, 12e first in the series.
There she will find number 4 Belinda Bencic, who fell for Ekaterina Alexandrova, 6-3 and 6-3.
Pegula leads the WTA with 22 wins this year.
Ons Jabeur, seeded No. 2, also savored the victory.
She dismissed Anna Kalinskaya 6-0, 4-1 via forfeit.
Jabeur’s next opponent will be No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina, who defeated Madison Keys 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2.
Jabeur hasn’t lost a set in three games.
She’ll try to build on that momentum against Kasatkina, who lost her first set of the week to Keys.
“I felt good training with my team,” she said. Playing matches is always different. And I was like, ‘OK, I’m just going to focus on each game and see what happens. »
Jabeur, fifth in the world, had four aces and saved the three break points conceded to her rival.
Keys was two games away from qualifying, leading 4-3 in the second set.
“The start of the year was a bit difficult,” Kasatkina said. I’m just so happy to finally be on the right track. »