Pegula stays on a roll, overcomes slow start | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula overcame a slow start and rallied from a set and a break down at the US Open to defeat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday night and advance to her first Grand Slam final.

The 30-year-old Pegula, seeded No. 6 from New York, has won 15 of her last 16 matches and will face No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka for the title on Saturday.

Sabalenka, last year’s runner-up to Coco Gauff at Flushing Meadows, stormed back into the championship match by holding off a late surge to beat No. 13 Emma Navarro of the U.S. 6-3, 7-6 (2).

Things didn’t look promising for Pegula early on: Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up but unseeded after missing about 10 months due to wrist surgery, employed every ounce of her versatility and creativity, the traits that make her so tough to play against on any surface.

The slices. The touch on the net. The serves and volleys. Ten of the first 12 winners of the match came with her racket. The first set lasted 28 minutes and Muchova won 30 of the 44 points.

“I was discouraged, but she was playing amazing. She made me look like a beginner,” Pegula said. “I was about to cry because I was embarrassed. She was destroying me.”

Muchova won eight of the first nine games and was one point away from leading 3-0 in the second set. But she failed to convert a break chance there, missed a forehand volley and everything changed.

“I thought, ‘Okay. You got lucky. You’re still in this,'” Pegula said. “It all comes down to little moments that change the pace.”

The 52nd-ranked Muchova quickly went from not being able to miss a shot to not being able to hit one. And Pegula did, displaying the confident style of tennis she used to dispatch No. 1 Iga Swiatek, a five-time major champion, in straight sets on Wednesday. Pegula was 0-6 in major tournament quarterfinals before that breakthrough.

It took Pegula a while to get going on Thursday, but once she got going, she did very well. In all, she won nine of 11 games, a span that allowed her to not only turn around the second set, but also take a 3-0 lead in the third.

Muchova, a 28-year-old Czech who had never dropped a set in the tournament, began to falter. After going 7-for-7 in points at the net in the first set, she went 11-for-19 in the second. After committing just seven unforced errors in the first set, she made 19 in the second.

Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, joked after her previous match that she would try to woo fans to her side by buying them alcohol, saying: “Am I buying the drinks tonight?”

Navarro did not give up in the second set, despite trailing for much of it, and as the noise around her grew, she broke serve when Sabalenka tried to serve for the 5-4 victory.

“I wasn’t prepared for the game to end,” Navarro said.

But in the ensuing tiebreak, Sabalenka took control after Navarro led 2-0, taking all the remaining points.

“I felt really comfortable at the end of the second set,” said Navarro, who beat Gauff in the fourth round, “and I felt like I could definitely get to a third. I just couldn’t do it.”

If Sabalenka is as demonstrative as can be, often pumping her fist and shouting after an important point or rolling her eyes after a mistake, Navarro is much more subdued and rarely, if ever, betrays a hint of emotion, whether positive or negative.

Even at 5-5, there was no way to tell what had happened by looking at Navarro. The sounds coming from the seats were a clue. But soon, thousands of ticket-holders were applauding Sabalenka for her latest display of hard-court mastery; she is now into her fourth consecutive major final held on that surface.

“Well, guys, now you’re cheering me up,” Sabalenka said with a laugh. “Well, it’s a bit late now.”

She produced 34 winners and 34 unforced errors, punctuating most of her groundstrokes with a yelp, and, in a touch of symmetry, Navarro had 13 winners and 13 unforced errors.