Jessica Pegula of the United States advanced to the Mutua Madrid Open final after beating Jil Teichmann of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4 in a late-night semifinal match. Pegula required 1 hour and 21 minutes to beat 35th-ranked Teichmann in their first encounter, which lasted until midnight local time. Jessica Pegula advances to her maiden WTA 1000 final and fourth overall on the Hologic WTA Tour.

Pegula remarked after her victory, “[Teichmann is] an extremely tough lefty.” “It was difficult since I couldn’t seem to get a rhythm. Maybe she was apprehensive at the start of the first set, and I could come out strong, which helped, but today was simply hard.”

In Saturday’s championship match, Pegula will face No. 8 seed Ons Jabeur, a fellow first-time WTA 1000 finalist. In the previous semifinal, Jabeur beat Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Grand performances at WTA

Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula and Jabeur have a 2-2 head-to-head record, but this will be their first clay-court meeting after four hard-court encounters. Pegula won the first two encounters (at Québec City and Montréal, respectively), but Jabeur won the subsequent two (Chicago 2021 and Dubai 2022).

Jessica Pegula, the world No. 14, has been building up to this moment for the last two years, with excellent performances in WTA 1000 tournaments. Pegula has advanced to the quarterfinals in six of her previous 11 WTA 1000 competitions.

During the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Pegula has won 28 WTA 1000-level matches. Only World No. 1 Iga Swiatek (29 wins) has won more games throughout that span.

Jessica Pegula first clay-court

Jessica Pegula put herself poised for a strong run in the first clay-court WTA 1000 tournament of the season. After reaching the semifinals in the most recent WTA 1000 event in Miami. Pegula, on the other hand, had to preserve a match point in her first-round encounter against Camila Giorgi in Madrid.

In their semifinal match, both Pegula and Teichmann won at least half of their second-service points, although Pegula was especially effective on defense, winning 16 of her 23 second-service points.

Both players made 13 unforced mistakes on the day, but Pegula’s flat-hitting was finding more wins, with 22 to Teichmann’s 12. These victories aided Pegula’s early lead, placing her one point away from a 4-0 information.

Teichmann came back from an early breakdown in the second set to tie the game at 4-4. Pegula, on the other hand, won rallies to break the Swiss and serve for the match at 5-4. Jessica Pegula came back from a 0-30 deficit in the game to reach the final.

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