On Saturday, October 11, American sixth seed Jessica Pegula broke the 20-match winning streak of world No. 1 Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka at the Wuhan Open in China. The three-time defending champion lost in an epic semi-final to Jessica Pegula in third set tie-breaker with the scoreline reading 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) in favour of the American tennis player, who will now take on her fellow countrywoman in the final of the tournament tomorrow.
After losing the first set in a one-sided manner in the semi-final of the Wuhan Open, Jessica Pegula dug deep to level it up a set apiece before finding herself in deep trouble in the third and deciding set. Aryna Sabalenka had taken a 5-2 in the final set before the American made a comeback of the ages, winning
four games in a row and forcing the world No. 1 to save two match points prior to flying past her to a major victory in the tie-breaker.
Watch the video here:
In the post-match chat, Jessica Pegula was incredibly happy with her performance in the Wuhan Open sem-final and most specifically the tie-breaker. She was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “For what I did in the tie-break, I'm just really proud of myself. I've played so much tennis the last few weeks, so many three-set matches, but I feel like I'm very tough right now and I'm just using that [feeling] as best as I can.”
Coco Gauff defeated Jessica Pegula to reach final of Wuhan Open earlier today
Earlier in the day, Coco Gauff became the first finalist of the Wuhan Open this year after getting the better of Italian Jasmine Paolini in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, but it wasn’t as simple as the scoreline would suggest. The American had seven double faults on serve apart from getting broken a whopping five times by Jasmine Paolini, who wasn’t able to capitalise on it.
“I'm really happy with how I played today. It was tough, especially playing on the serve, but I did what I needed to do to get through,” remarked Coco Gauff.
