NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula made no mistake at the start of her first Grand Slam semifinal. Her U.S. Open opponent, Karolina Muchova, made no mistake in her final match.
“I came out nervous, but she was playing unbelievably,” Pegula said. “She made me look like a beginner. I was about to cry because it was so embarrassing. She was destroying me.”
Pegula overcame a stuttering start and came back from a set and a break down to beat Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 and reach the Flushing Meadows final. The 30-year-old sixth-seeded Pegula from New York has won 15 of her last 16 matches and will face second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka for the title on Saturday.
The match will be a rematch of last month’s Cincinnati Open hardcourt final, which Sabalenka won – the only blemish on Pegula’s post-Olympic record.
“I hope I can get revenge here,” Pegula said.
Pegula’s parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, and her father was in the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday, along with her sister, brother and husband.
Things weren’t looking promising for Pegula that cold early evening.
Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up but unseeded after missing 10 months with wrist surgery, used every ounce of her versatility and creativity, traits that make her difficult to deal with on any surface.
Short shots. Touch at the net. Serve and power shots. 10 of the first 12 winners of the match came from her racket. The first set lasted 28 minutes, and Muchova won 30 of 44 points.
Muchova won eight of the first nine games and was one point away from a 3-0 lead in the second set. But she couldn’t convert a break point, missed a forehand, and everything changed.
“I was thinking, ‘Well, that was kind of luck. You’re still in this,’” Pegula said. “It’s about really small moments that shift momentum.”
In a flash, the 52nd-ranked Muchova went from not being able to miss a shot to not being able to land one. And Pegula did it, listening to her coaches’ advice to mix up her serves and spins, and to chase Muchova’s backhand.
“She was everywhere, and she started playing better,” Muchova said.
Pegula showed the confidence she has gained in tennis when she ousted top-seeded Iga Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion, in straight sets on Wednesday. Pegula had lost six Grand Slam quarterfinals before the breakthrough.
It took Pegula a while to get her game going on Thursday, but once she got going, she was unstoppable. In all, she won nine of 11 games, a stretch that allowed her to not only turn the second set around but also take a 3-0 lead in the third.
“I was able to find a way, find some adrenaline, get my strength back. Then at the end of the second set, in the third set, I started playing the way I wanted to. It took a while,” Pegula said. “I don’t know how I turned it around.”
Muchova, 28, of the Czech Republic, had not dropped a set in the tournament until then. But her form began to wane. After scoring 7 of 7 points in the first set, she hit 15 of 19 in the rest of the match. After committing just seven unforced errors in the first set, she hit 33 in the second and third sets.
Meanwhile, the crowd, which had been quiet at first—save for the occasional cry of “Come on, Jess!”—was roaring.
“Even getting to the semi-finals and feeling like I’m at my best and that I can compete against the best players and beat them is something I never knew when it would come back to me,” Muchova said. “I feel like I’m playing at a good level. I’m healthy and I can play more tournaments this year. That’s the most important thing really.”
This was the 25th US Open women’s semifinal in the Open Era to feature a 6-1 or 6-0 opening set; before Thursday, only three women had managed to come back from losing the first set by that scoreline — Sabalenka (2023), Victoria Azarenka (2020) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2004).
Pegula’s win means both the men’s and women’s finals will feature an American player, the first time that has happened at a major since Wimbledon in 2009. The last time it happened was at the US Open in 2002, when Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams and Pete Sampras defeated Andre Agassi.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
