With their straight-sets wins on Thursday, Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula joined Amanda Anisimova and Elena Rybakina in the semifinals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The top-seeded Sabalenka completed a 3-0 round-robin sweep in the Stefanie Graf Group and eliminated No. 3 seed Coco Gauff 7-6 (5), 6-2 in one hour and 28 minutes.
The sixth-seeded Pegula secured the No. 2 spot in the group with a 6-2, 6-3 demolition of No. 8 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in just 63 minutes.
Pegula will meet No. 6 Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the first semifinal on Friday, followed by No. 4 Anisimova taking on Sabalenka of Belarus.
Pegula’s breezy win against Paolini was a break from the norm, as her previous eight victories dating back to late September all went to three sets.
“I finally got a straight sets win for the first time in a few months,” Pegula said after the match. “That always feels really good, but I thought I served really well and just played solid today. I was aggressive when I needed to be. There wasn’t much negative today.”
Pegula saved the only break point she faced while winning 83% (24 of 29) of the points on her first serve, compared to 56% (25 of 45) with four double faults for Paolini. Paolini appeared to be battling illness and already had been eliminated from contention for the final four.
It was the 53rd win of the season for Pegula, 31, fourth most on the tour behind Iga Swiatek, Sabalenka and Rybakina. The last American woman to reach that total after age 30 was Serena Williams in 2015.
Gauff held a 4-2 lead in the opening-set tiebreak before Sabalenka swung the momentum with four straight points.
“I was thinking, ‘OK, there is nothing to lose,'” Sabalenka said after the match. “And I was going big on my serves. It really helped me to find my rhythm. After that … I was serving much better. Yeah, that was a great decision to go big and try to find the rhythm.”
Sabalenka jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set with two quick service breaks. Gauff broke the World No. 1’s serve in the sixth game but gave it right back in the seventh.
Gauff saved only one of six break points and double faulted six times. She committed 44 unforced errors, compared to 30 for Sabalenka.
–Field Level Media
