Jessica Pegula got the best of No. 1 Iga Swiatek yet again, finishing off a 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory on Saturday in the semifinals of the National Bank Open at Montreal.
Pegula defeated the Poland native for the second time this year. She advanced to the final Sunday where she will meet either No. 3 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan or No. 15 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia. Rain postponed their semifinal match until 1:30 p.m. local time Sunday. Pegula will face the winner after a suitable rest and not before 5:30 p.m. EDT.
Pegula, the No. 4 seed who is third in the WTA rankings, nearly pulled off the straight-set victory, leading 5-4 in the second set and serving for the match. But Swiatek broke serve and went on to win the set by taking the last five points of the tiebreaker.
Pegula then lost her serve on the opening game of the third set and seemed headed for a disappointing defeat. But she broke Swiatek's serve three times in the final set, the last at 5-4 to advance to the third WTA 1000 final of her career.
"Oh gosh, it feels great," Pegula said on the court in her postmatch interview. "No better way to earn it, right? That was tough match, great match like always. I felt like I was in control. But as the No. 1 in the world does, she played some really great tennis at the end of the second set and the third. She made me earn it."
Pegula won the match when Swiatek hit a forehand wide, calmly pumping her left fist in triumph while flashing a smile.
Pegula had six aces to two for Swiatek and won 63.5 percent of her first-serve points to win the match in 2 hours, 30 minutes.
"She really pushed me, so I needed to change something up," Swiatek said. "It was working, but in the third, I don't really know what happened when I was leading. I've got to watch the match and analyze it, because for sure she was fighting for every point and I did as well. It was a tricky match."
The last time an American won the final at Montreal was in 2013 when Serena Williams took the title. Americans have lost the final four times since, including Williams twice, the last in 2019.
—Field Level Media