A few minutes after 5:00 PM Polish time, Sunday's competition began semi-finals in the tournament WTA 1000 in Cincinnati. First on the court were Iga Świątek and Aryna Sabalenka. The competition between the world number one and three – and from Monday again the number two – lasted less than two hours. The Belarusian won 6:3, 6:3.
The match started with… a break.
After them, for a place in final Paula Badosa and Jessica competed Pegula. The match began with a break, because rain began to fall in the first game. Fortunately, it lasted a few minutes and the competition could be resumed. The American started much better, after equal games, but took the lead 4:0 with a double break. Pegula won all the key balls, aggressively punishing her opponent. The Spaniard, on the other hand, kept getting irritated by her mistakes or too short plays. At one point, she even shot the ball towards the railing behind the court, for which she received a warning.
Paula Badosa started to take full risks on the return, which had the positive effect of making up some of the losses, but after 36 minutes she still lost 2:6. She gave vent to her emotions again, shouting to her team.
The Spaniard's next mistakes produced a lightning-fast break for Pegula at the beginning of the second set. Badosa was no longer able to cope with her problems. As she went to the bench, she hid her face in her hands in helplessness. Tears even appeared.
Badosa's Sudden Metamorphosis
The Spanish tennis player, reconciled with her fate, paradoxically started playing better. She kept the ball in the court and transferred the burden of creating the game to her opponent, who made several mistakes, resulting in three games in a row for Paula Badosa. At 4:3, there was another break. There was a very long consternation, because the game was not resumed, but the players were still on the court. After 20 minutes (!), there was a heavier downpour and the tennis players could go to the locker room. The Spaniard only shook her head in consternation.
After almost an hour, the game was resumed. Badosa did not give up with her return aggression, which resulted in a break and a serve to equalize the set. And so it happened, and at the beginning of the second set Pegula was leading 6:2, 2:0. The sudden transformation of the Spaniard was impressive. The number of winners finally exceeded the number of unforced errors.
The final set was a real exchange of blows, because in the end both players “arrived” at the same time and showed their best tennis. Jessica Pegula, however, proved to be more stable. At the key moment, Paula Badosa made a double service fault and then hit a backhand into the net, which resulted in a break for the American. “Jessica Pegula turned out to be incredibly tough,” said Joanna Sakowicz-Kostecka, a commentator for Canal+Sport, at that moment.
Nothing could come too easily, though. The sixth-ranked player in the world had to defend a break point in the last game, but after two hours of play she closed the match 6:2, 3:6, 6:3. In the final of the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, Jessica Pegula will face Aryna Sabalenka.