Pegula hangs on to beat world No. 1 Swiatek, advance to National Bank Open final
Jessica Pegula of the United States, left, shakes hands with Iga Swiatek of Poland, following her win during semifinal action at the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Montreal, Aug. 12, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne MuschiJessica Pegula could not get her serve going on Saturday. Luckily for her, neither could her opponent.
Pegula, the tournament's fourth seed, advanced to Sunday's final where she'll face the winner of Saturday evening's semifinal between third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and 15th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia.Up 5-4 in the third set, Pegula broke Swiatek a final time after the top seed hit two shots long to take the win in two hours 30 minutes on a sunny afternoon at IGA Stadium.
"I don't know why this week all of us seem to be really having trouble, even girls that are considered the best servers on tour. It's weird," said Pegula. "It feels like the conditions, it's flying a little bit, it's swirling. I know it's also the first week we're playing with the Wilson extra duty balls.
"I kind of knew what I had to do to push her. Sometimes I could do that, sometimes I was making more mistakes -- and I think that was the difference," said Swiatek. "But I tried to play aggressively for the whole match."The 29-year-old can bring her career title count to three with a win Sunday. She hasn't won a tournament so far this season.
Serving was not an advantage from the beginning on Saturday. Pegula broke three times and Swiatek broke twice to start the match, which was filled with numerous long rallies.
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