Jessica Pegula has shared her frustration following her 6-2, 3-6, 4-6 loss to Elena Rybakina at the Miami Open.
Pegula felt she met Rybakina too early in Miami, with the two superstars having been drawn together in the quarterfinals.
And it was the third seed who came out on top, defeating the Miami Open fifth seed after an entertaining two-hour, 15-minute battle.
Current Australian Open champion Rybakina now faces WTA number one and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the Miami semifinals.
Meanwhile, Pegula has been left with an overriding feeling of frustration after falling short against Rybakina once again.
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Jessica Pegula frustrated after winning more points but losing to Elena Rybakina
Pegula said after her Miami Open exit: “It sucks when you feel… you win more points and you lose the match.
“Like, what do you really tell yourself? When you look at ‘What can I do differently?’
“Obviously, there’s some things I think I can still do differently, but… I almost rather, like, just get killed… 2 and 2… instead of being like ‘Oh, you played great. And you served well, and you won more points, but you lost, and that’s just frustrating’.”
The American will be particularly frustrated by blowing such an impressive early lead, although the Kazakhstani star deserves big credit for her determination to come from behind.
And as she mentioned, Pegula (100) remarkably finished the match with more points won than Rybakina (98), but it still wasn’t enough to get over the line.
| Elena Rybakina | Jessica Pegula | |
| 60.7% 68/112 | Total service points won | 65.1% 56/86 |
| 34.9% 30/86 | Total return points won | 39.3% 44/112 |
| 49.5% 98/198 | Total points won | 50.5% 100/198 |
Elena Rybakina praises Jessica Pegula after beating her in Miami
It was by no means a perfect performance from Rybakina, who admitted to being lucky at times throughout the match.
But she was grateful to come out on top, saying afterwards: “I feel every game was important, and of course, I made a lot of unforced errors, and as I said in the first set I was rushing a little bit and quite many mistakes.
“Also Jessica, she played really well in the conditions. I need to get used to a little bit since the previous match I played late.
“Her game also is fast and the ball stays low so I’m happy overall that I found the way. I was not rushing as much in the second set and won these important games.”
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Rybakina will now be looking to enjoy the same outcome against top seed Sabalenka, who also beat an American, Hailey Baptiste, to reach the last four.
It leaves Coco Gauff as the last American remaining at the Miami Open, with the home favorite meeting Karolina Muchova in the other semifinal.
She boasts a superb 5-0 head-to-head record over the Czech, while Sabalenka leads Rybakina 9-7 in their head-to-head.
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