Getting to the last eight in Wuhan was a battle, though, as Alexandrova didn’t just win the second set, she had chances in the other two, as well.
Pegula was down 5-2 in the first set before reeling off five games in a row to sneak it out—she was then down a break early in the third set too, at 2-1, before breaking back and eventually sneaking that one out.
In the end, though, Pegula was just too good in the most important moments of the match, finishing Alexandrova off after two hours and six minutes on center court, and dealing a severe blow to the world No. 11’s chances at qualifying for the WTA Finals in Riyadh.
“Every time we’ve played each other it’s always a match like this—super close, three sets almost every single time,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “I feel like it’s one of those match-ups where we tend to play into each other’s games. We like the way we hit the ball and we start getting into a rhythm, and start playing at a really high level.
“At the end I tried to mix it up a little bit as much as I could, and try and do some things different. It’s tricky though—she was playing at such a high level and she’s had such an amazing year. I don’t know if she’s Top 10 yet but she’s close, and she’s just an amazing player.”
