By Canadian Press

Pegula hangs on to beat world No. 1 Swiatek, advance to National Bank Open final

Aug 12, 2023 | 1:38 PM

MONTREAL — American Jessica Pegula held on to defeat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-2, (4) 6-7, 6-4 on Saturday in a match where serving appeared to be a major disadvantage, advancing to the National Bank Open women’s singles final.

Pegula, the tournament’s fourth seed, will face the winner of Saturday evening’s semifinal between third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan — who played until 3 a.m. local time Saturday morning — and 15th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia in Sunday’s final.

Up 5-4 in the third set, Pegula broke Swiatek an 11th 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.

Swiatek — the No. 1 for 71 weeks running — made an uncharacteristic number of errors throughout the match, including four double faults.

The two opponents only won 11 of 30 service games combined — with Pegula’s 11 break points edging Swiatek’s eight.

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Pegula had a chance to serve out the match up 5-4 in the second set after breaking the error-prone Swiatek an eighth time. Swiatek, however, broke right back to stay alive.

Both players then held serve to force a tiebreak, where Swiatek prevailed and forced a third set.

Pegula, who ended a four-match losing streak against top-10 players by beating doubles teammate Coco Gauff on Friday, advances to her second WTA final this year.

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. Pegula broke three times and Swiatek broke twice to start the match, which was filled with numerous long rallies.

Pegula, who did much of her damage with her forehand, finally broke through in the sixth game, scoring four straight points to secure the first hold of the match and take a 4-2 lead.

And Pegula wasn’t done there. She broke once more as Swiatek continued making unforced errors while serving, despite getting 86 per cent of her first serves in play.

The American then served to take the set handily, sealing it with an ace. 

Swiatek opened the second set strong, finally winning her first service game of the match.

Then the pattern from the first set continued as both players struggled gaining momentum on serve.

Swiatek and Pegula both broke each other twice consecutively before the American held to tie the set 3-3.

Then the players returned to breaking each other until Swiatek and Pegula both held to tie it 6-6 before the tiebreak, where music started playing from the stadium’s speakers in the middle of a point.

Swiatek started the third strong, jumping to a 2-0 lead and making fewer mistakes, but couldn’t hold off Pegula.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2023.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press