MEXICO CITY
\nThird seed Jessica Pegula overcame a sluggish start to breeze past Victoria Azarenka 7-6(3) 6-1 on Saturday and make the final of the Guadalajara Open, where she will meet Greek fourth seed Maria Sakkari or Czech Marie Bouzkova.
\nThe 28-year-old American, chasing her second career title, found herself in an early hole to the Belarusian former world number one as Azarenka sealed the early break on the way to a 3-0 lead in the opening set.
\nBut Pegula would soon find her rhythm, breaking back to send the set to a tie-break, which she took 7-3.
\nHaving let the first set slip away Azarenka unravelled while Pegula stepped up her play, breaking the two-times Australian Open champion twice as she steamrolled through the second to reach her second final of the year.
\n\u201cI feel really excited, really happy about my performance today.
\nHappy the way I hung in that first set and was still able to win it,\u201d Pegula, who also reached the final in Madrid this year, told reporters.
\n\u201cMy second final this year means a lot, especially kind of the last tournament of the year to finish really strong, win or lose tomorrow, is just kind of the icing on the cake of two really good years. I\u2019m really proud of myself.\u201d
\nPegula\u2019s path to the final has included victories over four Grand Slam winners: a second round win over Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina followed US Open champions Bianca Andreescu and Sloan Stephens and Azarenka.
\nBut the world number five said there were still some nerves heading into the title clash. \u201cAt the same time you\u2019re happy to be there,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cYou have pressure and you also don\u2019t have pressure because when you start a tournament your goal is to get to the end and to give yourself a chance to win a title.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEXICO CITY Third seed Jessica Pegula overcame a sluggish start to breeze past Victoria Azarenka 7-6(3) 6-1 on Saturday and make the final of the Guadalajara Open, where she will meet Greek fourth seed Maria Sakkari or Czech Marie Bouzkova. The 28-year-old American, chasing her second career title, found herself in an early hole to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-291197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n