Elena Rybakina reached the semi-finals of the Miami Open for the third time after beating Jessica Pegula over three sets on Wednesday.
The No 3 seed came through a contest lasting two hours and 15 minutes to win 2-6 6-3 6-4 against the No 5-seed Pegula, her fifth straight win over the American in the last seven months.
The Australian Open champion will now face either world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who she beat in the final of the first Grand Slam of the year, or Hailey Baptiste.
“It’s always very difficult matches with Jessica,” Rybakina said post-match. “She started playing well, and I was a bit rushing and frustrated, but I’m happy that I managed to bounce back and turn it around in the second set. Then we were just fighting, and the early break helped me a little bit.
“Couple times I got lucky. I was trying to come a little bit more to the net – Jessica plays very fast and sometimes short, so it was not easy to just stay back I had to adapt a little bit.”
Rybakina started the match slowly with 12 unforced errors in an opening set that had seen Pegula cruise out to a 4-0 advantage.
A decisive moment came in the fifth game of the second as Pegula squandered three break points at 2-2, throwing momentum in favour of Rybakina on her way to clinching the set.
Rybakina marched on from there to win the deciding set while finishing the match with 15 aces but having won just 98 points to Pegula’s 100.
The first women’s semi-final takes place on Thursday when Coco Gauff faces Karolina Muchova.
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