NEW YORK
\nThe cheers of home fans cheers echoed through Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday as Jessica Pegula staged an astonishing comeback to beat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 and set up a meeting with Aryna Sabalenka in her first Grand Slam final.
\nThe prospect of an all-American final had alre\u00adady been scotched when Belarusian Saba\u00adlenka earlier downed Emma Nava\u00adrro 6-3, 7-6 (7\/2) and for a while in the later match, it looked like the host nation would be unrepresented in the title-decider.
\nPlaying in her first major semi-final, Pegula was made to look like a novice by Muchova in a disastrous opening set but somehow turned the tables on the unseeded Czech.
\n\u201cIt comes down to really small moments that flip momentum,\u201d said Pegula. \u201cShe made me look like a beginner … I was about to burst into tears because it was embarrassing. I star\u00adted to play like how I wanted to play … It took a while but I don\u2019t know how I turned that around, honestly.\u201d
\nPegula could only muster up three winners across the first set as Muchova showed no signs of rust despite her recent return from a wrist injury that sidelined her for some 10 months.
\nWith the famously raucous main showcourt deathly quiet, the Czech looked as though she might roll through the rest of the match after going 2-0 up in the second set.
\nPegula, though, gradually found the form that had seen her win 14 of her previous 15 matches to break her opponent in the fourth game and again in the sixth.
\nMuchova broke back in the seventh game but the mistakes were piling up and she showed her nerves by double faulting on set point to give Pegula an opening she did not pass up.
\nRoared on by the crowd, Pegula marched through the first three games of a near-flawless final set and threw her hands in the air in delight after breaking Muchova on her second match point with a fine forehand return.
\nMuchova committed her 40th unforced error of the contest on match point, sealing her fate.
\n\u201cI had a break point for 3-0 in the second set but I missed a volley and everything changed,\u201d said Muchova. She picked it up and played solid. She was everywhere and played great. All credit to her.\u201d
\nSabalenka, the runner-up to American Coco Gauff last year, earlier relied on her superior power to subdue the 13th seed Navarro, sending over 34 winners and closing out the match with a satisfying overhead smash on match point.
\nNavarro took out Gauff in the fourth round but was no match for the two-times Australian Open champion, even with a passionate home crowd urging her on.
\nSabalenka, who jokingly offered the crowd a free round of drinks if they supported her over the home hope, teased the fans after the win.
\n\u201cNow you\u2019re cheering for me \u2014 wow \u2014 it\u2019s a bit late,\u201d she said. \u201cEven though you guys were supporting her, I had goosebumps. She\u2019s such a great player, really tough opponent.\u201d
\nThe pair traded breaks early in the first set but Sabalenka soon settled in and wrested the momentum in the sixth game, earning the break with a forehand winner before extinguishing Navarro\u2019s break-point chance in the seventh with an unreturnable serve.
\nNavarro bloodied her knee midway through the second set chasing a shot and Sabalenka looked set to cruise to victory when an error by the American helped her to a break in the fifth game.
\nThe 13th seed refused to go down without a fight, applying pressure from the baseline to break back in the 10th game and put the set on course for a tiebreak.
\nSabalenka, once famously prone to meltdowns, gave a sarcastic thumbs up to her team after going 2-0 down in tiebreak with a double fault but soon got down to business, winning an 18-shot rally at the net en route to the win.
\n\u201cI\u2019m really happy to see that in those key moments I\u2019m able to stay focused and just try to do my best and focusing on my tennis,\u201d said Sabalenka. \u201cEven if things are not working well for me, I still keep doing right things and I\u2019m staying in control.\u201d
\nNavarro, who had lost in the first round on her two previous appearances at the US Open, admitted that the occasion may have caught her on the hop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK The cheers of home fans cheers echoed through Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday as Jessica Pegula staged an astonishing comeback to beat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 and set up a meeting with Aryna Sabalenka in her first Grand Slam final. The prospect of an all-American final had alre\u00adady been scotched when Belarusian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-429950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n