CHARLESTON, South Carolina — World No.3 Jessica Pegula advanced to her fourth semi-final of the season after defeating No.33 Paula Badosa 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Charleston Open.
The victory moved Pegula to 22-6 on the season, moving her ahead of Elena Rybakina for the most wins on tour.
With Pegula, Ons Jabeur, Daria Kasatkina, and Bencic advancing, this marks the first time the Top 4 seeds have reached the Charleston semi-finals in over 20 years.
Mary Pierce, Conchita Martinez, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario completed the feat in 2000.
Second-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia advanced to the Charleston Open final for the second straight year, beating No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 7-5 in the semi-final match.
Jabeur has now won 10 of her last 12 semi-finals on the WTA Tour as she reached her first final of the year, and her first since triumphing on grass in Berlin last year.
Seeded No.1 in Charleston, Pegula will face defending champion Belinda Bencic in the semi-final. Bencic booked her return to the semi-finals with a clinical 6-3, 6-3 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Playing just her third tournament as a top seed, Pegula is bidding to win her first career clay-court title this week.
Her best result on the surface came last year when she advanced to her first WTA 1000 final at the Madrid Open.
In cool and increasingly windy conditions, Pegula and Badosa traded baseline blows for seven games before the American asserted her authority.
Playing the role of the aggressor, Pegula converted the only break point of the set to build a 5-3 lead and closed out the 35-minute opening set.
Pegula struck immediately to open the second set, breaking for a 1-0 lead. Pegula confidently rolled through her service games to keep Badosa at bay, but the Spaniard finally earned her first break point of the match as Pegula served for the win.
Serving for the win at 5-4, 15-0, Pegula watched two perfectly struck Badosa forehands land in to build scoreboard pressure.
Badosa took her chance, digging in to win back-to-back long rallies to break for the first time and level at 5-5.
But Pegula would seal the win in a tight tiebreak. Locked at 5-5, Pegula drilled a forehand down the line to earn match point, which was swiftly saved by a Badosa forehand winner.
Pegula made no mistake on her second chance, breaking open the point with a deep and heavy forehand before Badosa netted a passing attempt to close out the 1-hour and 41-minute match.
“She made me earn it in the end,” Pegula said. “The conditions started getting really tricky. I know there’s some rain coming, so I’m glad I was able to get through that, especially in straight sets.”
Pegula finished the match with 22 winners to 18 unforced errors and faced just one break point. Badosa hit 18 winners to 21 unforced errors.
The Swiss holds a 3-0 record over Pegula, having won all six sets played. Their last meeting came at the 2021 US Open, where Bencic won 6-2, 6-4. This will be their first meeting on clay.
“Belinda is really tough”, Pegula said. “She’s a really tough matchup for me. I haven’t played her in a while. I think I’ve improved a lot since the last time I played her. But we play kind of similar, hit kind of low flat, and take it early. And she tends to kind of feed off my pace and like how I play.”
Already a champion twice this season, Bencic is trying to win a tour-leading third title this season. Pegula is looking to win her first title since Guadalajara last fall.
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