Pegula Stuns World No. 1 Sabalenka At WTA Finals To Close In On Semifinals

Despite looking unbeatable in her first match at the WTA Finals, Aryna Sabalenka proved every bit a human in her showdown against Jessica Pegula.

Sabalenka produced an incredible effort to take down Maria Sakkari in her first match, beating her soundly in two sets. It was a spectacular showing despite her grievances about the quality of the court, but her second match was not the same.

She ran into a very inspired Pegula, who was equally as impressive as herself in the opening round. Pegula downed Elena Rybakina in two sets, and with this win, she essentially secured the semi-final, but she will need to wait for official confirmation, as a very specific and improbable scenario would see her third in the group.

It was a strange match, mostly because of the result, as nobody really expected Sabalenka to lose so easily. The Belarusian served badly, which then created many problems for her in the match.

At the same time, a lot of the credit goes to Pegula, who came to play in Cancun. She did just enough from the baseline and the serve to push Sabelenka into self-destruct mode.

The Belarusian was more than happy to oblige with a very erratic performance, struggling with control all day long. She totaled five double faults and 33 unforced errors in 19 games of play, which is just too much.

When it comes to Pegula, she served well but just handled the power of her opponent smartly, minimizing her own errors, which was the key to winning this match.

Pegula finished with four aces and only 17 unforced errors, a much better mark than her opponent. She also totaled 12 winners, three less than Sabalenka (15), which indicates a more moderate approach that worked out in her favour. The final score was 6-4, 6-3 for the American player.