By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The cheers of home fans cheers echoed through Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday as Jessica Pegula staged an astonishing comeback to beat Karolina Muchova 1-6 6-4 6-2 and set up a meeting with Aryna Sabalenka in her first Grand Slam final.
The prospect of an all-American final had already been scotched when Belarusian Sabalenka earlier downed Emma Navarro 6-3 7-6(2) and for a while in the later match, it looked like the host nation would be unrepresented in the title-decider.
Playing in her first major semi-final, Pegula was made to look like a novice by Muchova in a disastrous opening set but somehow turned the tables on the unseeded Czech.
“It comes down to really small moments that flip momentum,” said Pegula.
“She made me look like a beginner … I was about to burst into tears because it was embarrassing.
“I started to play like how I wanted to play … It took a while but I don’t know how I turned that around, honestly.”
Pegula could only muster up three winners across the first set as Muchova showed no signs of rust despite her recent return from a wrist injury that sidelined her for some 10 months.
With the famously raucous main showcourt deathly quiet, the Czech looked as though she might roll through the rest of the match after going 2-0 up in the second set.
Pegula, though, gradually found the form that had seen her win 14 of her previous 15 matches to break her opponent in the fourth game and again in the sixth.
Muchova broke back in the seventh game but the mistakes were piling up and she showed her nerves by double faulting on set point to give Pegula an opening she did not pass up.
Roared on by the crowd, Pegula marched through the first three games of a near-flawless final set and threw her hands in the air in delight after breaking Muchova on her second match point with a fine forehand return.
Sabalenka, the runner-up to American Coco Gauff last year, earlier relied on her superior power to subdue the 13th seed Navarro, sending over 34 winners and closing out the match with a satisfying overhead smash on match point.
Navarro took out Gauff in the fourth round but was no match for the two-times Australian Open champion, even with a passionate home crowd urging her on.
Sabalenka, who jokingly offered the crowd a free round of drinks if they supported her over the home hope, teased the fans after the win.
“Now you’re cheering for me – wow – it’s a bit late,” she said.
“Even though you guys were supporting her, I had goosebumps. She’s such a great player, really tough opponent.”
SABALENKA WRESTS MOMENTUM
The pair traded breaks early in the first set but Sabalenka soon settled in and wrested the momentum in the sixth game, earning the break with a forehand winner before extinguishing Navarro’s break-point chance in the seventh with an unreturnable serve.
Navarro bloodied her knee midway through the second set chasing a shot and Sabalenka looked set to cruise to victory when an error by the American helped her to a break in the fifth game.
The 13th seed refused to go down without a fight, applying pressure from the baseline to break back in the 10th game and put the set on course for a tiebreak.
Sabalenka, once famously prone to meltdowns, gave a sarcastic thumbs up to her team after going 2-0 down in tiebreak with a double fault but soon got down to business, winning an 18-shot rally at the net en route to the win.
“I’m really happy to see that in those key moments I’m able to stay focused and just try to do my best and focusing on my tennis,” said Sabalenka.
“Even if things are not working well for me, I still keep doing right things and I’m staying in control.”
Navarro’s loss was a second disappointment for the home fans on Thursday after Italians Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori ended all-American pair Taylor Townsend and Donald Young’s storybook run in the mixed doubles final 7-6(0) 7-5.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates, Shri Navaratnam and Nick Mulvenney)
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