Jessica Pegula kept it straight honest following her thriller Wuhan semifinal win over Aryna Sabalenka as the No. 6 seed admitted to "not believing" that she managed to pull off the comeback she did.
After easily losing the first set, Pegula took the second set to force a decider. In the third set, Sabalenka bounced back and went 5-2 up. Just when it seemed that the match would soon be over, the American stunningly claimed back-to-back breaks to overturn the deficit and open a 6-5 lead. While the No. 6 seed failed to serve out for the match in the 12th game, she still won after dominating the third-set tie-break and registering a 2-6 6-4 7-6 (2) win.
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Going into the match, Sabalenka had been 20-0 in Wuhan. And Pegula became the first player to beat the Belarusian at the Chinese WTA 1000 tournament.
Pegula: I can't believe I came back and won that
That was crazy, I cant believe I came back and won that. I was clearly very nervous when trying to serve it out. I lost my timing, lost my rhythm and tried to go for too much. But I bounced right back in the tiebreak. I am really proud of myself. I have played so much tennis the last few weeks, so many three-set matches but I feel like I am very tough right now and I am trying to use that as best as I can," the American admitted.
For Pegula, this was her first win over Sabalenka since beating the world No. 1 at the 2023 WTA Finals. Between the 2023 WTA Finals and this year's Wuhan, the American lost four times to the Belarusian.
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In the Wuhan final, another tough task awaits the sixth-seeded American as she plays against No. 3 seed Coco Gauff. She leads the head-to-head against Gauff 4-2.
It will be awesome playing Coco in the final, Pegula said of the upcoming Wuhan final versus her fellow compatriot.
