Paula Badosa has played superb tennis recently, but Jessica Pegula still bested her in three sets to secure the 2024 Cincinnati Open final.
Not too long ago, there was a serious conversation about what Badosa could do with her tennis career. She has been dealing with a chronic back injury, and that is seriously preventing her from playing regular tennis.
This left Badosa seriously contemplating whether she would need to stop competing. Luckily, she was able to nurse herself back to health and start playing again. The injury hasn't gone away, but she's learned how to manage it to give herself a chance to compete regularly.
Fascinatingly enough, the Spanish player has been performing at a very high level lately. She won the Citi Open in Washington, which was a hugely emotional experience, and now added a semi-final at the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati.
That's an impressive run from a player who thought about possibly stopping playing. Her opponent in the semi-final was a player who has been equally impressive in recent weeks.
Pegula was in Paris for the Olympics, and while her stay in the French capital didn't go that well, the American didn't waste any time and returned to Toronto.
Fatigue proved no issue as she played amazing tennis all week long to win the trophy at the Canadian Open. With her latest win in Cincinnati, Pegula made yet another final, having now won nine matches in a row.
It's one of the best runs of her career, and it literally came out of nowhere. Her match against Badosa was about as impressive as any of the eight before. She faced a player who was in equally good form and outplayed her.
It's generally a good matchup for her because she never lost to the Spaniard. They faced each other twice, and the American won the match both times. She did it again this time, and it almost didn't happen.
The first set started with an early break of serve for the American player, who added another break to take a 4-0 lead. It was only then that Badosa could win a service game, but it didn't change much.
Pegula won the opening set 6-2 thanks to some tremendous play. She was outplaying Badosa in the rallies, and that was the crucial difference. Pegula is a brilliant hitter, especially when she's in form like this.
The good play continued in the second set as she once again broke her opponent's serve early and held her serve to take a 2-0 lead. Pegula just dominated the rallies, and it wasn't that close.
Badosa's stats on her serve show just how dominating Pegula was on Badosa's serve. The Spaniard barely avoided falling behind 0-3, which would have almost ended her hopes of turning the match around.
This way, Badosa could break back and make it 2-2 and stay in the match. At 4-3 in the second set, the Spaniard was a bit unlucky as her good momentum was cut short by a malfunction of the back panels behind the players, which interrupted play.
It started to rain while they waited to continue, which was quite unfortunate for Badosa, who was starting to turn around the match. Still, after they returned more than an hour later, Badosa could break her opponent's serve immediately and win the second set 6-3 to force the decider.
It was just a stellar comeback from Badosa, who had a chance to complete the comeback. She had a double break point chance at 1-1 but Pegula was able to hold on.
If the Spaniard had broken, then the match would have likely slipped out of the home crowd favorite's hands. While Badosa was still playing solid in the final set, with time, Pegula started to find her rhythm again.
She needed a bit of time after the rain delay, but she ultimately found her A-game. At 4-3, Pegula created a break chance and took it for the 5-3 lead, but serving out the match wasn't that easy.
She had to save a break point but was able to do that and win the match 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to set up a final clash with Aryna Sabalenka, who stunned Iga Swiatek in the other semi-final match.
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