Pegula ends Filipino teen’s dream run to give American a shot at Miami Open title

By Harvey Fialkov

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The clock struck midnight but this Filipino Cinderella in sneakers wasn’t ready to leave the Miami Open presented by Itaú.

However, 43 minutes later, American Jessica Pegula, the fourth seed, converted her second match point when her crosscourt backhand to wild card Alexandra Eala’s forehand found the net to wrap up a topsy-turvy 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3 victory to send the Buffalo native into her third Masters 1000 final, but first in Miami.

Pegula, 31, who has lived in nearby Boca Raton for years, let out a loud, “Let’s go!’’

“Making another 1000 is huge so I’m just super excited at where I put myself here,’’ said Pegula, who had made two previous semifinals in Miami only to lose to 2022 champion Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina in 2023. “At the beginning of the year I believed I could win this tournament. I’ve always had good results, and have gone deep

“It’s so tough. I’m exhausted and I didn’t even win the tournament yet.”

That explains why Pegula wrote, “I am tired,” on the camera lens following the 2-hour, 24-minute battle won by the far more experienced combatant.

Eala, 19, who brought an 0-2 WTA record into Miami, hung around to celebrate with her parents and signed autographs for the many Filipino fans who were waving her country’s flags. Heat coach Eric Spoelstra, who’s Filipino, came to her quarterfinal victory over Iga Swiatek, the number two player in the world. She became the lowest ranked player to defeat a Top 2 opponent in the Miami Open since the tournament’s inception in 1985.

”Of course, I’m disappointed,’’ said Eala, who limped into the Mixed Zone interview area with a taped left thigh and ankle that she rolled at the beginning of the second set. “But there’s so many times in tennis where you have to dig out the dirt to look for the positive and now I’m enjoying it because there’s so much positive around me and I don’t know how many times that has happened so I’m just lucky to have been able to experience these two weeks.

“The match I played was amazing and she played amazing. I definitely had my chances and I definitely have things that I could’ve done better but I literally gave everything I had as you see I’m taped up like a mummy.”

It doesn’t get any easier for  Pegula, as on the other side of the net in Saturday’s final will be world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who overpowered plucky 6^th-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini by getting in 78 percent of her first serves and winning 78 percent of those points, while saving all four break points against her in a 6-2, 6-2, 71-minute rout on Stadium Court to advance to her first Miami Open final and 12^th Masters 1000 final.

At 5-11, the sturdy 26-year-old Belarusian, was in a self-proclaimed zone. When she didn’t win points outright on her serve, she finished it off a 1-2 punch with her pulverizing forehand. Paolini is now 2-4 against the world No. 1, but hasn’t won a set in their last three meetings.

“She played an amazing match, 78 percent of her first serves, she’s serving so fast,’’ said Paolini, 29, who was proud of her first semifinal in Miami and first of the year. “It’s not just putting the ball in the court, it’s like how she serves. Not too many mistakes so it was tough to play against her today. This was the sixth time with her, but this time she played unbelievable.

“I did my maximum today. Maybe I could serve a little bit more percentage. It’s not easy sometimes.”

Pegula is 2-6 against Sabalenka, including a physical 7-5, 7-5 loss in last summer’s US Open final, the first Grand Slam final of Pegula’s career.

“I consider myself one of the best hard court players in the world and I think she probably is the best right now, so it’s always a tough challenge,’’ Pegula said. “So I’m just going to have to try my best to take her out Saturday.

“Hopefully, I can serve well Saturday. I think that’s something you have to do against her because she returns really well. I’ve been returning well so I always feel like even though she’s one of the best servers in the world I can give myself a chance to break her. She’s tough and playing with a lot of confidence.”

 The 5-foot-9 Eala accomplished so many other firsts for a Filipino player, and she did it by defeating three Grand Slam champions along the way, including Jelena Ostapenko, then No. 5 Madison Keys and Swiatek.

But Pegula utilized her experience and Eala showed signs of nerves for the first time when she blew a 5-2 lead in the first set when in the 5-3 game, she was up 40-30 she committed two double-faults and a forehand error to give Pegula the break.

Pegula jumped out to a set and 3-1 lead after Eala took a medical timeout to have her ankle wrapped, but the racket-thin gutsy Filipino who reminds many of 2021 US Open finalist Leyla Fernandez, doesn’t know the meaning of quit. She clearly learned that attribute from her mentor for the past six years at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain.

She started going for the lines with her flat forehand and she stormed back to take the set by breaking Pegula at 5-5, before knotting the match on her second set point.

“She takes the ball early, uses the angles well and competes and sees the court,’’ Pegula said. “Those things are going to take her far. … I thought I let up at 3-1 and should’ve won that at 6-3, but you never know how they’re going to respond, and that they could go for their shots and make every ball. She played super aggressive and it was working.”

Pegula got the critical break to go up 5-3 in the third and Eala’s forehand let her down with a bushel of unforced errors, including the last three points of the match.

“I think I’m going to reset and build my body back up so that my next tournament I can go all out full and can give everything I have again. … It’s not easy because if it was, everybody would be doing it.”

Over the past 52 weeks, Sabalenka ranks second in service games won and second in second serves won.

Still, at 2-4 of the second set, Paolini held two break points to crawl back in the match, but a stubborn Sabalenka ripped two forehand winners before serving a 98-mph ace and a serve-plus one to go to 5-2. She quickly broke the Italian with another huge forehand that Paolini couldn’t handle. A warm embrace and the usual 24-7 smile from Paolini.

In the last 20 years Sabalenka is the sixth player to reach the final in Indian Wells (loss to Mirra Andreeva) and Miami in the same season, joining Kim Clijsters (2005), Victoria Azarenka (2016), Maria Sharapova (2006, ’12, ’13), Iga Swiatek (2022) and Elena Rybakina.

She’s also the third current No. 1 to reach the final at Indian Wells, Miami and the Australian Open. Sabalenka is in legendary company with Steffi Graf (1994) and Martina Hingis (2000).

“I definitely say that this was one of the best matches in the season so far,’’ said Sabalenka, who leads the tour with 22 match wins but only one title at Brisbane in January. “I don’t know. I was just so focused on myself, on the things I had to do today. It felt like everything was just going smoothly my way. Yeah, super happy with the performance. I felt like I was in the zone.”

Sabalenka, who is loving the short commute from her adopted home in Miami, said she has learned some tough lessons from her heartbreaking losses this year in the finals of the Australian Open and Indian Wells.

“I believe in focusing on myself, not on what’s going on the other side,’’ Sabalenka said. “Sometimes players just go out there and they have nothing to lose, and they just go crazy on the shots.

“I think in those finals I was more focusing on my opponents than on myself. I think I just have to bring the same attitude, the same mindset that I had today, I think I have to bring it in the finals. I really feel this time I’m going to do better than I did in the last two finals.”

Sabalenka will be the odds-on-favorite Saturday as she has won 16 of her 18 titles on hard courts, including her three majors.

“We had a lot of tough matches against each other,’’ she said. “It’s always great battles. Cincinnati was a great level for me probably but maybe not really from her. And then the final was just like crazy match again. She fought really hard in that second set, and that was a tough match.

“I’m always excited facing her.”

When asked what she does better than Pegula, Sabalenka hesitated and then said: “Everyone can play great shots. I think it’s all about the mental part of the game. Maybe mentally in some of the moments I’m a bit tougher than her.”