NEW YORK – Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka was so good for Jessica Pegula, who won the U.S. Open 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 Thursday night in a rematch last year’s final.
Since Serena Williams’ three straight games from 2012 to 2014 in 2012, No. 1 Sabalenka has shifted a victory from becoming the first woman to win a row on Flushing Meadows.
Sabalenka will meet No. 8 Amanda Anisimova or 23 Naomi Osaka on Saturday.
The game is very close, with Sabalenka’s straight-forward victory over Pegula far exceeding the nearest, which led the 27-year-old from Belarus to her third Grand Slam title, all on the hard ground.
Since then, Sabalenka has finished second in the Australian Open in January with Coco Gauff at the French Open in June before being eliminated in the Wimbledon semifinal in July.
When this ended at Sabalenka’s third match point (after two wrong mistakes on the initial chance), she swung back, spread her arms and screamed.
“I have to work very hard to get this victory,” she said in an interview with Pegula’s career 8-2 against Pegula. “Hope I can go again.”
Before the semi-finals began, the retractable roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium was closed, which prevented the damage of gusts outside, with a top speed of 30 mph and rain during the race.
In good indoor conditions, 4th Pegula played as cleanly as possible in the first and third sets, making three uncompulsory mistakes in each game. But in the second, these are nine.
By the end, Sabalenka accumulated more than twice as many as Pegula as 43-21.
All night Pegula went for a big cut after returning and it wouldn’t be safe anyway. Well, here’s the key: Sabalenka was able to save all four breakout points she encountered in the final set, when the bet and tension were the highest.
Asked how she handled those moments, Sabalenka smiled and replied, “I don’t know. I’m just praying in it, hoping to do the best.”
It’s hard to believe that this serve was once a real problem for Sabalenka. But she began rescheduling in 2022 with a biomechanics coach, Gavin Macmillan, who was hired by Goff before the U.S. Open.
In her first two service games alone, Sabalenka offers an ACE at 114 mph, offering several winners at 109 mph and 117 mph awards.
Entering Thursday, neither player lost the game, although Sabalenka only had to play four games instead of five to reach the semi-finals as her quarter-final rival Maketa Vondrousova succumbed to the injured knee.
This means that Sabalenka has not competed since Sunday.
Will she rust? Of course, there was no such view from the beginning, and Sabalenka used the beautiful Didi-Volley-Winner combination to help get on the field and get a 4-2 lead.
But Pegula did not fold. In the next game, Sabalenka scored two consecutive points, and Sabalenka beat the balanced sprint for two consecutive points, and the shelves on thousands of shelves roared and beat the double torture and broke.
Sabalenka shook her head and slammed her arm against her. This ended the 27-year-old from Berarus, who had 32 consecutive possessions, dressed in a white towel during the conversion. Pegula then went bankrupt again, covering four matches that wrapped around the scene, this time Sabalenka quickly retrieved her bag and headed to the locker room.
When she returned, Sabalenka lifted her game, although there were still signs of nerves.
The double mistake in the third set prompted her to turn the racket onto the court. Pour the head over the net at the initial match point and let Sabalenka stare at the ground. On the next chance to close things, she volleyed to the bottom of the net, partly her 15-15-point forward.
Still, she insisted on beating Pegula as usual and now has a chance to win another major title.
“It means a lot,” Sabalenka said. “I’m going there on Saturday and I’m going to fight for each point like the last point of my life.”
