Jessica Pegula secured a remarkable victory against world number one Aryna Sabalenka, winning 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) in the Wuhan semi-finals. She will now face fellow American Coco Gauff in the final.Pegula, playing her eighth consecutive three-set match, recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the final set. Gauff advanced to the final after defeating Jasmine Paolini 6-4, 6-3.“That was crazy, I can’t believe I came back and won that. 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 as best I can.”Sixth-seeded Pegula reached her sixth final of the season by defeating defending champion Sabalenka, who previously held a perfect 20-0 record at the tournament.The semi-finals were played in cooler temperatures compared to earlier matches this week, resulting in numerous service breaks due to slower conditions.
The opening stages saw five service breaks in six games before Sabalenka established a 5-2 lead. Sabalenka claimed the first set in 40 minutes after Pegula showed frustration by throwing her racquet.Despite serving difficulties, Pegula’s strong groundstrokes helped her improve in the second set. She overcame an early setback to win the set and force a decisive third set.The final set remained competitive until Sabalenka served for the match at 5-3. Pegula mounted a comeback to take a 6-5 lead.While serving for the match, Pegula committed four double faults and missed two match points. Sabalenka forced a tiebreak, but Pegula prevailed to secure only her third win in eleven matches against the world number one.In the other semi-final, Gauff overcame previous losses to Paolini with a determined performance.“It was 3-0 this year but I think our head-to-head is even now. 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.”The match featured eleven consecutive service breaks. Gauff finally held serve in the seventh game of the second set to secure the win in 82 minutes.At age 21, Gauff has now reached her fifth WTA 1000 final and third in 2025.
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