World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept past Jasmine Paolini into the final of the Miami Open presented by Itaú, where she will take on Jessica Pegula, who needed 2 hours and 26 minutes to see off Alexandra Eala, whose fairytale run came to an end as Thursday turned into Friday in South Florida.
I’m so tired, so, so tired. She’s really good. She’s a really good tennis player, goes for her shots, takes the ball early… competes really well, she’s beaten a lot of top players this week. I don’t think she needs me to tell her that she’s a great player, that we’re not going to see enough of her, we definitely are, and she proved that tonight. Jessica Pegula
Sabalenka took just 71 minutes to wrap up her win against Paolini, the 6th-seeded Italian, 6-2, 6-2, in a dominant performance that saw her lead pretty much from start to finish.
The win earns the Belarusian, who was beaten in the Indian Wells final earlier this month by Mirra Andreeva, a place in the Miami final for the first time in her career.
“I’m super happy with the level I played today,” Sabalenka said. “Of course, super happy to be in my first Miami Open final.”
Sabalenka was never behind against Paolini, and the match was only tied twice, at 1-1 in each set.
“I definitely would say that this was one of the best matches of the season so far, I don’t know,” she added. “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.”
The top seed never lost her serve to advance to her 12th career WTA 1000 final, serving 6 aces and breaking Paolini 4 times on her way, while striking 31 winners to 12 unforced errors.
There was little that Jasmine Paolini could do to stop Aryna Sabalenka advancing to her first final in Miami
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Sabalenka, who resides in South Florida, told reporters earlier in the tournament that she loves to be able to sleep in her own bed, drive her car, and even do laundry while competing at the tournament.
The Belarusian, though, had previously only reached the quarter-finals in 2 of her 6 appearances at her home tournament, but she has now broken new ground in reaching the final.
Over the past 20 years, Sabalenka is the 6th player to reach the final at both Indian Wells and Miami in the same season, after Kim Clijsters (2005), Maria Sharapova (2006, 2012, 2013), Victoria Azarenka (2016), Iga Swiatek (2022), and Elena Rybakina (2023).
Sabalenka will be keen to banish the memory of her defeats at Indian Wells at the hands of Andreeva, and in the Australian Open final, where she lost to Madison Keys.
“The lessons [of those defeats] were, I believe, to focus on myself, not on what’s going on the other side,” the 26-year-old said. “I think, in those finals, I was more focused 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 into the finals. I really feel, this time, I’m going to do better than I did in the last two finals.”
Jessica Pegula had to go the distance to stop 19-year-old wild-card Alexandra Eala’s remarkable run in Miami in their semi-final that finished well past midnight
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Her next gritty opponent, Jessica Pegula, will, of course, have something to say about her fate in Saturday’s final, after overcoming Alexandra Eala, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3.
The No. 4 seed withstood an inspired challenge from the 19-year-old left-handed wild-card, who, earlier this week, became the first player from the Philippines to defeat a Top 10 player since the WTA rankings began in 1975.
Pegula had needed 3 sets to survive 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, and found her flat hitting neutralised by Eala’s counter-punching as she twice lost serve in the first 7 games.
Thursday’s 3-set thriller finished after midnight local time, following a furious comeback by Eala from a set and a break down, and in a third set where neither woman lost serve in the first 7 games, or even faced a break point.
Eala is the story of the tournament with her run to the semi-finals, scoring wins over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, and former World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, defeating them all in straight sets.
The 19-year-old has come a long way from the youngster who grew up practicing on a basketball court with her brother Miko, on which they had to paint their own lines.
They left home when Eala was 13 years old to study at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, where she continues to train to this day.
19-year-old Alexandra Eala beat 3 Grand Slam champions to reach the Last 4 but could not quite defeat the gritty Jessica Pegula on Thursday night at the Hard Rock Stadium
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Her fearlessness and focus came to the fore again against Pegula, and she maintained her blistering pace early on to carve out a quick 5-2 lead.
Looking to have the opening set wrapped up when she earned a set point, nerves struck Eala and she double-faulted at 40-30, and again at deuce to hand the initiative back to Pegula.
The American pounced, channeling her experience into an impressive fight-back by winning 5 of the next 6 games to squeak out the first set in a tiebreak.
Eala began to struggle physically after a fall led to a left ankle injury that required a medical time-out, but she played brave tennis from a break down in the second set, storming through the next 3 games to turn the tables on Pegula and emerge with a break lead of her own.
Pegula wrestled the momentum back when she won 8 of 9 points from 30-0 down to break Eala straight back, capitalising on some loose shots from the Filipina to put herself back in front.
From serving to stay in the match, Eala produced one more surprise when she stormed into a deciding set, converting her second set point as Pegula missed wide.
Eala kept the pressure on early in the decider, creating multiple openings on Pegula’s serve as the clock ticked past midnight.
The American held firm, though, and soon had an opening of her own in the 8th game, out-rallying Eala to earn a break point, which she converted when the teenager missed her forehand wide.
Although Eala saved a match point, Pegula earned a second thanks to some excellent touch at the net, and a final miss from the 19-year-old put the World No. 4 over the finish line.
Jessica Pegula congratulated Alexandra Eala on her fairytale run in Miami
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Finishing late on Thursday after a late-night Wednesday affair against Raducanu, Pegula had just enough left in the tank to push herself over the line in the last 3 games, which included a hold to win the match from 0-30.
“I’m so tired, so, so tired,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “She’s really good. She’s a really good tennis player, goes for her shots, takes the ball early… competes really well, she’s beaten a lot of top players this week.”
“I don’t think she needs me to tell her that she’s a great player, that we’re not going to see enough of her, we definitely are, and she proved that tonight.”
Pegula takes a 2-6 head-to-head record against Sabalenka into Saturday’s final as she seeks a 4th career WTA 1000 title.
“I do feel like I’m serving a little bit better,” Pegula said. “Hopefully I can serve well Saturday. I think that’s something you have to do against her. She returns really well.”
“I have 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 maybe to break her. But she’s tough. She’s playing with a lot of confidence. She likes, I think, a little bit quicker hard court as well, playing one-two punch, playing an aggressive game.”
“I had chances at the US Open, up 5-3 in that second set. Who knows what would have happened there? I definitely know I’ll get some chances if I play some good tennis hopefully, and I will try to do my best to take advantage of that, and, you know, learn from the last couple of matches.”
