A year after 1st, Jessica Pegula sets 2nd Miami Open face-off against Elena Rybakina

Jessica Pegula fought back from the brink of defeat to reach the semi-finals of the Miami Open on Tuesday where she’ll play Elena Rybakina next. The third seed defeated 27th seed Anastasia Potapova 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) after more than two and a half hours of play.

Potapova started off the better player in the clash and was able to win the first set despite Pegula making an attempt at a comeback from a break down. In the second set, Pegula upped her level as Potapova struggled to carry over her momentum from the first set. The deciding set had its moments with both players seizing control over the proceedings.

The lower-ranked player came from 0-2 down in the set and won four games in a row to go up 4-2. In the 10th game, while serving for the match Potapova was up 40-15 before Pegula changed the course of the match. While Pegula was unable to consolidate the break back in the 11th game, yet another break of Potapova’s serve saw her get a second chance to see the match through. This time though she didn’t even get to reach another match point. The tie-break was all about Pegula and she made no mistakes as she clinched the win for herself.

Potapova had 27 winners for the match, four more than Pegula’s 23. She also had 57 unforced errors, two more than Pegula’s 55.

Miami Open: Elena Rybakina’s winning path 

Meanwhile, in the other quarter-final, 10th seed Elena Rybakina had no problems in getting past 25th seed Martina Trevisan. Rybakina needed only 69 minutes to post a 6-3, 6-0 win.

Rybakina won 68% of her first-serve points and 56% of her second-serve points. She also won 69% points on return on the Italian’s second serve. She had 23 winners, a dozen more than her opponent’s 11 and 21 unforced errors, eight more than Trevisan’s.

Heading into the upcoming Miami Open match-up between Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula, the latter holds a 2-0 win-to-loss record against the 23-year-old. Both meetings, however, came in 2022 with their first match coming in the third round of that year’s Miami Open. Pegula won that match in straight sets.

Photo Credit: The Tennis Letter Twitter