the American Jessica Pegula, ranked fifth in the world, beat Belarusian Victoria Azarenka 7-6(3), 6-1 on Saturday and became the first WTA Master 1,000 finalist based in Guadalajara.
Pegula, the third favourite, went from less to more to stop the feisty Azarenka, who at 33 years old has retained much of the tennis she has had for 51 weeks as world number one and allowed her win the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013,
“Vika” started better, breaking her opponent’s serve in the second game and taking a 4-1 lead.but in the seventh “game” he experienced a break in a duel in which both showed successes and failures on the first serve, despite not allowing more breaks.
In the tie break, Azarenka committed a pair of double faults, Pegula took advantage and won 7-3.
For the second set, the Belarusian made body gestures of weakness, first he grabbed his hip as if he was hurt and then he complained of pain in his right elbow. He made 11 unforced errors and made it easy for Pegula, who maintained consistency.
Jessica broke in the fourth game then she did it again in the sixth and cruised to a victory that puts her in contention for the title, which could put her in third place in the world rankings, with less than two weeks to play in the WTA Finals.
the American will face in the final (01 in the morning in Spain) the winner of the duel between the Greek Marie Sakkari, sixth in the world list, and the Czech Marie Bouzkova38th in the classification, which had to be postponed this Sunday (20 Spanish time) due to rain.
Sakkari broke his rival’s serve in the twelfth game of the first set to win it 7-5, but soon the rain came down, which stopped for a moment and returned just as the players were about to return to the field.
The Guadalajara Open, which takes place on hard courts with a prize pool of two million 527,250 dollars, is the last of nine Master 1,000 tournaments of the season.
The competition is a kind of preview before the WTA Final that will take place in Fort Worth from October 31 to November 7 followed by the absence of 2021 champion Garbiñe Muguruza, who did not play in Guadalajara due to physical discomfort.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
