Jessica Pegula had a challenging week at the 2024 Berlin Open, but she will be looking back on it with good memories.
The American started the tournament as the fourth seed, and her week got off well, when she beat Donna Vekic in the opening round. Her quarter-final match against Katerina Siniakova was then postponed because of rain, and the same thing happened when she took on her doubles partner Coco Gauff.
Pegula’s match with Gauff was postponed on Saturday evening, and when they returned to the tennis court on Sunday, the more experienced American won the match, setting up the final with Anna Kalinskaya.
The Russian had a good week herself, but she also benefitted from retirements of Marketa Vondrousova and Aryna Sabalenka to get into the final of the tournament.
In the first set of the final match, both players struggled on their serve, as at one point, there were five consecutive breaks of serve, before they settled on deciding the opening set in the tie-break.
In that tie-break, Kalinskaya was the much better player, as Pegula couldn’t find a way to challenge her opponent, losing the tie-break 0-7.
However, in the second set of the match, the 30-year-old started with a break, and despite losing that one-break advantage mid-way through the second set, she broke her opponent’s serve once again, winning the second set 6-4 to force the decider.
Kalinskaya was the better player early on in the third set, breaking her opponent’s serve and leading 4-1, but after she lost the advantage, the scoreboard showed 4-4.
It seemed that it was the following two games when the match was being decided, as first, Pegula had four break points, and after failing to use those, she faced four championship points in the following game.
Both players were successful in saving their opponent’s break points, but the American player had to do it once more in the 12th game of the deciding set.
She succeeded in doing so, taking the decider into a tie-break. In the tie-break, Pegula showed her wealth of experience, calmly marching towards the finish line to win the match 6-7(0), 6-4, 7-6(3), and lift the 2024 Berlin Open trophy.
