(Los Angeles) The American Jessica Pegula (world No. 6) beat the Spaniard Paula Badosa (N.36) on Sunday 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, and joins the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (N.3 ), defeater of world No.1 Iga Swiatek, in the final of the Cincinnati tournament.
Pegula and Sabalenka will play their first career final in Cincinnati, a warm-up tournament for the US Open, which begins on August 26.
Both their semi-finals were temporarily interrupted by rain.
Pegula easily won the first set by breaking her opponent three times, before seeing Badosa come back in the second set. But the American, who won last weekend’s National Bank Open in Toronto, held on in the third set, saving five break points along the way.
Earlier in the day, Sabalenka had taken her revenge on Swiatek, who had lost two finals this season against the Polish player on clay (Madrid and Rome).
Swiatek, fragile on serve – she did not win any points on her second serve in the first set – still fought hard, saving no fewer than nine match points, before conceding defeat 6-3, 6-3.
PHOTO SUSAN MULLANE, USA TODAY SPORTS
Aryna Sabalenka
“It was such a tough battle with Iga, and we also had to be patient with the weather conditions,” said Sabalenka, who will succeed American Coco Gauff at No. 2 in the WTA rankings.
“On match points, I told myself that this was why she was world number one and that she would fight until the last point. […] “I just had to keep doing my job and hope to win,” added the 2023 US Open finalist.