World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus never lost her serve en route to a 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 6 seed Jasmina Paolini of Italy on Thursday, securing her first trip to the Miami Open final.
Reaching her 12th career WTA 1000 final, Sabalenka — a three-time Grand Slam champion — never trailed against Piolini and has won their last three meetings without dropping a set.
“I’m super happy with the level I played today,” Sabalenka said. “Of course super happy to be in my first Miami Open final.”
In the Saturday final, Sabalenka will face No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula, who beat teenage wild card Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3 late Thursday night.
Sabalenka served six aces, converted four of her five break points and notched 31 winners and just 12 unforced errors in the one-hour, 11-minute dominant victory. The match was tied just twice, at 1-1 in both sets.
“I definitely would say that this was one of the best matches in the season so far,” said Sabalenka, who hasn’t lost a set in the tournament. “I don’t know. I was just so focused on myself, on the things I had to do today. It felt like everything was just going smoothly my way.”
“I usually go for dinner; but, other than that, it’s always tennis on my TV, actually,” Sabalenka said when asked whether she would watch the Pegula-Eala match or go out for dinner in Miami, where she now lives. “I’m actually enjoying watching tennis lately. That’s crazy. I’m getting old.”
Sabalenka became the sixth woman to reach the finals on both stops of the “Sunshine Swing” in the same season. She lost to Mirra Andreeva in the final at Indian Wells earlier this month.
Pegula, a South Florida resident, is through to the final at Miami for the first time in her six appearances at the event.
She knocked out the breakout star of the tournament, Eala, a 19-year-old who became the first Filipina to reach the semifinals of a WTA event.
Eala might have extended her run of upsets had she converted a set point at 5-4 in the first set. Instead, Pegula rallied to force a tiebreaker that she won. After Eala took the second set, Pegula recorded the only service break of the final set in the penultimate game before serving out the victory.
Pegula admitted she was “pushed to the limit” by her teenage foe.
“She’s really good,” Pegula said. “She’s a really good tennis player, goes for her shots, takes the ball early … competes really well. She’s beaten a lot of top players this week. I don’t think she needs me to tell her that she’s a great player, that we’re not going to see enough of her. We definitely are, and she proved that tonight.”
Sabalenka holds a 6-2 career record against Pegula, including a straight-set win in the U.S. Open final last year.
“Hopefully I can serve well Saturday,” Pegula said. “I think that’s something you have to do against her. She returns really well.
“I have been returning well, so I always feel like even though she’s one of the best servers in the world, I can give myself a chance maybe to break her. But she’s tough. She’s playing with a lot of confidence.”
–Field Level Media
