Jessica Pegula is one win away from her second WTA 1000 title within two weeks after she successfully defended her Canadian Open in Toronto last week.
It’s all set up to the battle of the big-hitters in Cincinnati on Monday, after Jessica Pegula survived a second set lapse to Paula Badosa to join Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
Pegula has picked up her form after a slow start to the year punctuated by injuries and early grand slam exits.
Her Olympic campaign in Paris was poor and cast doubts over how the American might respond as she transitioned over to the hard courts.
However, after winning the Toronto Open and reaching the final in Cincinnati, Pegula has done exceptionally well to remove the nay-sayers and prove she can compete at the top.
Jessica Pegula is preparing for an in-form Aryna Sabalenka in the Cincinnati final
Sabalenka opted to skip the Olympics to recover from a small injury and focus on a return to the US Open final which she narrowly lost out in last year.
Mixed success has seen her reach the semi-finals of the Washington Open, before being dumped out in considerable style to the returning American WTA star Amanda Anisimova in Toronto.
Her dominating win over world number one Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals however showed that the real Sabalenka is back and ready to win.
Assessing her chances, Pegula told Tennis.com: “It seems like she’s been playing really, really good. Obviously can serve really big, so it’s always tough to deal with opponents that have weapons like that, where they can get a lot of free points on a faster hard court.”
A huge ball-striker herself, Pegula went own to identify how she might neutralize the Sabalenka attack.
“I think I can play well against big hitters, because I can kind of rush them. My ball kind of, especially on maybe a little faster hard court where it’s skidding and not giving a lot of time to set up for their shots. I think my ability to take time away from my opponents is probably the biggest strength that I have.”
With the Belarusian leading the head-to-head with four wins out of their six meetings, Pegula will still come in confident having beaten Sabalenka the last time the pair played at the WTA Finals.
Aryna Sabalenka leapfrogs Coco Gauff and clambers up the WTA rankings
With her crushing win over Swiatek and credit to Coco Gauff’s worrying form, the Belarusian will take the number two spot and seeding at the upcoming US Open.
After Gauff was thumped in Toronto by Diana Shnaider, her outing against Putintseva was arguably far more concerning.
At 4-2 up in the decider, Gauff altered what looked to be a winning game style and completely imploded to the plucky Kazakh who has become a bit of a giant-slayer of late, after defeating Swiatek at Wimbledon last month.
Her consecutive early exits means Sabalenka now sits as the world number two, with Swiatek remaining top.
After heartbreak in New York last year, Sabalenka looks to have found the same ball-striking that saw her defend her Australian Open title in January – the question is whether she can keep it up for the US Open.
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