The US Open women’s singles tournament is officially down to two players: the world No. 2 and an American in her first career Grand Slam final.
No. 6 Jessica Pegula defeated Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday to advance to her first major final at age 30. While she has won six WTA events, she had previously never advanced past the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam.
The final is scheduled for Saturday at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Jessica Pegula stuns Karolina Muchova in 3-set comeback
In Muchova, Pegula was facing a former top-10 player who lost most of her points after missing nine months of the previous year.
Muchova opened the match by playing like she never left. She blitzed both of Pegula’s serves and won at both the net and baseline, taking the first set easily and going up a break in the second. Pegula’s body language clearly showed a player who was down.
“I was about to burst into tears because she was making me look like a beginner. It was embarrassing,” Pegula said after the match.
Pegula responded by getting more aggressive on Muchova’s second serve, while cleaning up her service game. She was also helped by 19 unforced errors from Muchova in the second set, inviting her to even the match.
The momentum held going into the third set, with Pegula breaking Muchova early and holding serve from there to get the biggest win of her career, with the biggest match of her career still awaiting.
Aryna Sabalenka bests Emma Navarro
In their third meeting of the year, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka overmatched No. 13 Emma Navarro, another American making her first Grand Slam semifinal appearance, in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
Despite having the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium on her side, rooting for the underdog, Navarro had no answer for Sabalenka’s powerful serve (with seven aces) and forehand. Her quickness helped her stay in the match with strong defense. But Navarro frequently had to play defense because she couldn’t take back the game on her second serve.
Just as it seemed like Navarro might fend off Sabalenka’s offense, the No. 2 seed surprised with drop shots. Showing touch closer to the net while Navarro was playing back to catch up with Sabalenka’s power was a combination too difficult to cover. Trying to catch Navarro by surprise occasionally led to unforced errors at times.
However, Sabalenka’s tendency to rely on her power sometimes leaves her prone to watching her serves and returns rather than moving. Navarro took advantage, showing quickness all over the court and occasionally catching Sabalenka flat-footed to win points.
In the second set, Sabalenka won break point with her powerful forehand, despite Navarro’s best efforts to keep up. Trying to maintain her footing while moving quickly side-to-side eventually caused Navarro to slip and scrape her right knee. While that may not have inhibited her physically, it was an indication of how Sabalenka was battering her.
Eventually, Navarro couldn’t slow Sabalenka’s pace down and take more control of the match. Navarro fought back to within 4-3 and 5-4 in the second set, again winning with quickness against Sabalenka’s power.
The second set turned into a clash of agility versus power, with Navarro holding Sabalenka off and getting her frustrated. Navarro’s speed along the baseline helped her get to and fight off shots that Sabalenka thought were out of reach.
Yet despite putting up an incredible fight in forcing the second set to a tiebreaker, Navarro had to play catch-up throughout the entire match and it ultimately caught up with her. Sabalenka put up a wall, winning 8 of 10 points and righting herself after getting frustrated from being unable to put Navarro away.
Sabalenka advances to her second consecutive US Open final.
Here’s how it all went down at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the 2024 US Open.
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Pegula wins 1-6, 6-4, 6-2!
The No. 6 seeds comes back from down a set and a break to advance to her first career Grand Slam final. She’ll face No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday.
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Pegula goes up 5-2
After Muchova’s racket fling, Pegula wins the next two points to hold serve and move one game away from the win. She’s played more conservatively this set, letting Muchova go for the winners, and the errors that come with them.
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Muchova is visibly frustrated
Muchova is pushing to even the match, but another missed break point left her so frustrated she tossed her racket in the air at the end of the point. Fortunately, she also caught it.
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Pegula holds serve to go up 4-1
At age 30, Pegula is two games away from her first career Grand Slam final.
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Pegula gets the break to go up 2-0 the third
We’ve gone full reverse here. Pegula takes a significant lead in the third set and Muchova is now yelling at her box. Now it’s Muchova who needs to make an adjustment.
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Pegula takes the second set
After going down a set and a break, Pegula fights back to even the match and send it to a winner-take-all third. She looked much better in that set, especially after the first couple games, but was also helped by 19 unforced errors from Muchova in that frame. She’s still not winning her first serve enough, taking 13 of the 24 points in that set, but she managed to punish Muchova’s second serve (12-of-15 points won).
This will be Pegula’s first three-set match of the tournament.
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Muchova breaks right back, down 4-3
This has been an eventful second set, as Muchova prevents Pegula from consolidating the break. She also seems to be reaching for her side a bit, so she might be dealing with something.
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Pegula takes a 4-2 lead
That was a big one. After four deuces, Pegula gets her second break and is now on track to even this match. She looked completely down just a few games ago, but is now pumping her first and yelling. This would be quite a comeback.
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Pegula gets the break, tied 2-2
Finally. It wasn’t the best showing for Muchova, but Pegula is back in this match.
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Pegula gets on the board, now down 2-1
All she did was hold serve, but even that feels significant for Pegula at this point. She had to hold off a break point in the process. Stark stat: she has won 10 of her 22 first-serve points so far. Muchova, meanwhile, has won 15 of 19. If Pegula doesn’t figure out how to change both in her favor, this is basically over.
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Pegula gets broken to open the second
It’s all Muchova now. She’s won all eight points at the net and is still showing a clear advantage in baseline rallies. Pegula’s body language is not encouraging and she is going to need quite a reversal.
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Arthur Ashe Stadium trying to breath some life into Pegula
The New York City crowd is doing its best to lift up the lone American left in the women’s field, giving her a nice cheer on her first point won in the second set.
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Muchova takes the first set 6-1
That was easy, at least after the break points. Muchova was all over the court, feasted on both Pegula’s first and second serves and threw down 11 winners to Pegula’s three to convincingly take the first set. If Pegula doesn’t get back up to speed, we’re looking at a sub-hour match.
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Then Muchova gets the break, up 3-1
The Czech veteran is looking sharp so far, or at least sharper than Pegula, who committed three unforced errors and basically handed away a game she needed to win.
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Karolina Muchova survives the first big game of the match, leads 2-1
Tied 1-1, Muchova fought off three break points to hold serve in a marathon game. There were some pretty great points in that.
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Muchova takes the first game without much trouble
Two unforced errors from Pegula, let’s see how she responds.
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Muchova and Pegula are now taking the court
Two players who have dealt with injuries for most of the year, now playing for their first US Open final. Pegula is a -155 favorite on BetMGM.
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Sabalenka wins 6-3, 7-6 (2)
Emma Navarro put up an incredible fight in forcing the second set to a tiebreaker. From there, however, Aryna Sabalenka put up a wall, winning 8 of 10 points and righting herself after getting frustrated from being unable to put Navarro away.
Navarro had to play catch-up throughout the entire match and it ultimately caught up with her. Sabalenka advances to her second consecutive US Open final.
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Sabalenka rights herself
Just as the set appeared to be slipping away for Sabalenka, she rights herself with a blistering return that Navarro can’t get to, despite her best effort. She needed that one.
We’re at a 6-6 tiebreaker. Agility versus power.
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Sabalenka getting frustrated
An inability to put Navarro away is frustrating Sabalenka. As a result, she’s getting sloppy and hitting balls into the net.
At the moment, Sabalenka doesn’t seem to have answers and is looking to her coaches for help. Meanwhile, Navarro is gaining steam and the crowd is giving her energy as she takes a 6-5 advantage.
