Pegula takes down No. 1 Swiatek to reach National Bank Open final in Montreal

Jessica Pegula could not get her serve going on Saturday. Luckily for her, neither could her opponent.

The American broke world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland 11 times en route to a 6-2, (4) 6-7, 6-4 victory in an unusual semifinal where serving appeared to be a major disadvantage at the National Bank Open in Montreal.

“I was getting frustrated that I wasn’t holding,” said Pegula, who was broken eight times herself. “But then at the same time I knew she was having trouble holding as well.

“I was just like, I know I’ll get more chances if I can just … hold. Basically, it was whoever could kind of consolidate the break.”

Pegula, the tournament’s fourth seed, advanced to Sunday’s final where she’ll face the winner of the semifinal match between third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and 15th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia.

Pegula will have to wait until Sunday afternoon to learn who her opponent will be as play was called off in Montreal due to poor weather conditions. The semifinal is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET, and the final is expected to be played later in the evening.

It’s Pegula’s first time in the NBO final after falling out in the semis the last two years.

Up 5-4 in the third set, Pegula broke Swiatek a final time after the top seed hit two shots long to take the win in two hours 30 minutes on a sunny afternoon at IGA Stadium.

The two opponents only won 11 of 30 service games combined.

Pegula even had a chance to end the match much earlier, up 5-4 in the second set and serving, but Swiatek broke her serve to stay alive and eventually win the set in a tiebreak.

New tennis balls

So how does one explain why the players struggled so much on serve? Pegula couldn’t say for sure, but wondered if it might have something to do with new tennis balls.

WTA players are testing out Wilson extra duty balls — instead of regular duty — for the first time on hard courts this week, through next week and into the U.S. Open in late August/early September.

“I don’t know why this week all of us seem to be really having trouble, even girls that are considered the best servers on tour. It’s weird,” said Pegula. “It feels like the conditions, it’s flying a little bit, it’s swirling. I know it’s also the first week we’re playing with the Wilson extra duty balls.

Swiatek — the No. 1 for 71 weeks running — made an uncharacteristic number of errors throughout the match, including four double faults.

“I kind of knew what I had to do to push her. Sometimes I could do that, sometimes I was making more mistakes — and I think that was the difference,” said Swiatek. “But I tried to play aggressively for the whole match.”

Pegula, who beat doubles teammate Coco Gauff on Friday, advances to her second WTA final this year.

The 29-year-old can bring her career title count to three with a win Sunday. She hasn’t won a tournament so far this season.

Game plan

Whether she plays Samsonova or Rybakina — who played until 3 a.m. local time Saturday morning — Pegula says her approach will be the same.

“Two similar players, serve big, hit big, like to really go after their shots, both really tall, physical girls,” she said. “Whoever wins I feel like it’s a very similar game plan, trying to take away their serve and then do my best to just play my game.”

Serving was not an advantage from the beginning on Saturday. Pegula broke three times and Swiatek broke twice to start the match, which was filled with numerous long rallies.

And Pegula wasn’t done there. She broke once more as Swiatek continued making unforced errors while serving, despite getting 86 per cent of her first serves in play.

The American then served to take the set handily, sealing it with an ace.

Swiatek opened the second set strong, finally winning her first service game of the match.

Then the pattern from the first set continued as both players struggled gaining momentum on serve.

Swiatek and Pegula both broke each other twice consecutively before the American held to tie the set 3-3.

Then the players returned to breaking each other until Swiatek and Pegula both held to tie it 6-6 before the tiebreak.

Pegula lost the ensuing five points and the tiebreak before falling behind 2-0 to Swiatek early in the third, but climbed back knowing she’d always have a chance to break back the way the match was going.

Sinner sets up clash with de Minaur

It took Alex de Minaur a few days to find his form at the men’s tournament in Toronto after a packed schedule created some challenges.

Now that he’s settled into a groove, the wins just keep on coming.

De Minaur was in full control of a 6-1, 6-3 semifinal victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Saturday to earn a berth in his first career Masters 1000 final.

“I just told myself that no matter what, I was going to compete every point,” de Minaur said. “Stay positive and not get frustrated by how the match may go, and I’m just going to give myself the best chance of staying tough mentally.

“And I think that’s probably what got me the win today.”

The 18th-ranked Australian will play seventh-seeded Italian Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s final. Sinner beat 12th-seeded American Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

“I just tried to stay aggressive and take the tough challenges in important moments,” Sinner said. “[I] tried to play the right way.”

De Minaur arrived in Toronto in the wee hours Monday after reaching the final in Los Cabos, Mexico. It was a quick turnaround with an opening doubles match that day ahead of his singles opener on Tuesday.

“The first couple rounds, I didn’t play my best tennis,” de Minaur said. “Just things weren’t clicking. I couldn’t really feel the ball in the strings and I just told myself to keep going at it.”

He managed to beat 11th-seeded Cameron Norrie in the first round and bested Canadian wild-card entry Gabriel Diallo in the second round, dropping nine games in each straight-sets win.

Eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz pushed de Minaur to three sets and the Australian reached the semis by upsetting second-seeded Daniil Medvedev.

De Minaur broke Davidovich Fokina’s serve on his first opportunity. He used his speed and return skills to keep the pressure on the Spaniard throughout the 77-minute match.

Davidovich Fokina made 22 unforced errors to just four for his opponent on a sunny but windy afternoon.

“The conditions were very, very tough for both of us, so it didn’t allow for ideal tennis [or] perfect tennis,” de Minaur said.

In the evening, Sinner and Paul exchanged service breaks to open their match. Sinner used his strong pace from the baseline to prevent Paul from dictating the rallies.

The American received treatment on his lower back/right hip area early in the second set and was broken in his next service game.

At 2-4, Paul had three break point chances but couldn’t take advantage. Sinner saved one by outlasting Paul in a 46-shot rally that brought the near-capacity crowd to its feet.

Sinner, who reached the Miami final twice but has yet to win a Masters 1000 title, has won all four of his previous meetings against de Minaur. Three of the victories came on hard courts while the most recent win — last year in Madrid — came on clay.

‘Very bad day in the office’

Davidovich Fokina, meanwhile, upset third-seeded Casper Ruud and 13th-seeded Alex Zverev en route to the semifinal. The 37th-ranked player showed flashes of his previous form against de Minaur but mistakes snuffed out any rhythm.

“I was late off everything,” Davidovich Fokina said. “I didn’t move my legs today. I [was] not giving up but it was very weird. Like a very bad day in the office.”

De Minaur did give up a break late in the second set but broke right back to improve to 32-16 on the season. He’ll rise at least five spots in next week’s rankings and would reach a career-high No. 11 with a title.

In doubles play, El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands posted a 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 win over the seventh-seeded duo of Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos.

They’ll play the third-seeded team of American Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury in Sunday’s final. Ram and Salisbury advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over sixth-seeded Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany.

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