Jessica Pegula has one last challenge in the deepest Grand Slam run of her career: powerful No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s U.S. Open final.
Pegula, a 30-year-old American, rallied past Czech Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals on Thursday night.
In the second set, Muchova missed an open-court volley that would have put her up 3-0 (and two breaks of serve).
“She made me look like a beginner,” Pegula said. “I was about to burst into tears because it was embarrassing. She was destroying me. ... I don’t know how I turned that around, honestly.”
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She is the oldest U.S. woman to make her Grand Slam semifinal debut and now her Grand Slam final debut in the professional era (since 1968).
If Pegula can win one more on Saturday, she will become the second-oldest first-time women’s Grand Slam champion after Italian Flavia Pennetta at the 2015 U.S. Open.
And the first woman to win a Slam by beating the top two seeds since Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2009 French Open (Serena Williams, Dinara Safina).
Pegula, the daughter of the owners of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, made her Grand Slam debut at the 2011 U.S. Open at age 17.
From 2011-18, she entered 14 Grand Slams and lost in qualifying at 12 of them. In 2019 and 2020, she lost in the first round of the main draw of four consecutive Slams.
“I’ve always felt like, not that it was never going to happen, I almost think the opposite,” she said. “I always felt like, you know what, you’ll figure it out eventually.”
Then she skyrocketed, breaking into the top 50 in 2021 and a career-high No. 3 in the world in 2022.
“My mental toughness just got so much better,” said Pegula, who will return to No. 3 in the rankings after the Open. “Once you start winning a lot of matches, and you have this belief in yourself that you can win in tough moments, you can beat these girls and all this stuff. It just gives you a lot of confidence going into these weeks.”
Her primetime breakthrough came on Wednesday night. Pegula beat top seed Iga Swiatek to reach her first major semifinal after losing her previous six quarterfinals.
Then by beating Muchova, she ensured a U.S. woman made the final at one of the four Slams for an 18th consecutive year.
Next: Sabalenka, who beat Pegula 6-3, 7-5 three weeks ago, after which Pegula compared the Belarusian’s dominance to that of Williams.
“She served unbelievable, and I felt like I still had chances in that match,” Pegula said. “So hopefully she doesn’t serve that good Saturday. Maybe a little bit less would be nice. But I think I know that I can have a game that can possibly frustrate her.”
Sabalenka swept American Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the first semifinal on Thursday.
Sabalenka, 26, was broken by the 13th seed Navarro while serving for the match before coming back to win seven consecutive points in the tiebreak.
“She showed how tough she is and why she’s probably the favorite to win this tournament,” Pegula said.
Sabalenka won an 11th consecutive match overall. She moved to 26-1 at the two hard-court Grand Slams since the start of 2023.
She won the Australian Open the last two years and squandered a set lead on Coco Gauff in the 2023 U.S. Open final. She had a flashback to that loss, and that atmosphere, late in the second set on Thursday.
“I’m really glad that the lesson’s learned,” Sabalenka said. “I was able to control my emotions.”
Sabalenka also had memorable three-set U.S. Open losses in 2018 (to eventual champion Naomi Osaka in the fourth round), 2021 (Leylah Fernandez in the semis) and 2022 (Swiatek in the semis).
“I had so many opportunities here, but I didn’t use it for different reasons,” she said. “I wasn’t ready, then I got emotional, then I just couldn’t handle the crowd. ... Every time, I’m hoping that one day I’ll be able to hold that beautiful trophy.”
Navarro had one career Grand Slam match win before this year. She had 14 Grand Slam match wins this year.
She will move into the top 10 in the rankings for the first time after the U.S. Open at No. 8.
“I was kind of joking a little bit with my team (before the tournament), but a little bit serious as well that I was looking to win one match at the U.S. Open,” Navarro said. “So definitely leaving with a lot of positives.”