Top seed Pegula returns to San Diego semifinals; Navarro to face Boulter
Top seed Jessica Pegula View Profile advanced to her first semifinal of the season at the Cymbiotika San Diego Open after defeating No.51 Anna Blinkova View Profile 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
No.5 Pegula will face No.6 seed Marta Kostyuk View Profile on Saturday. Kostyuk came from a set down to defeat No.4 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova View Profile 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and advance to her first semifinal of the season.
A four-time champion on the Hologic WTA Tour, Pegula is bidding to make her first final of the season in San Diego. The 30-year-old American is playing her first tournament since the Australian Open. She withdrew from Doha and Dubai with a neck injury.
Out of the gates 🔥@jpegula | #SanDiegoOpen pic.twitter.com/IltnDqHhEB
— wta (@WTA) March 2, 2024
After dominating the opening set, Pegula played an error-strewn second set to give Blinkova hope for her second upset of the week. After coming from a set down to defeat former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the first round, Blinkova knocked out Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska View Profile in the second round.
"She had an amazing run in Australia and she's been playing some good tennis," Pegula said. "She's such a great competitor, a great attitude on court. She makes you have to earn it."
Pegula put her sub-par second set behind her to race to a double-break lead in the decider. She protected the lead down the stretch to win in 1 hour and 33 minutes and to move to 3-0 over Blinkova. She finished with 25 winners to 17 unforced errors.
Teaming with Desirae Krawczyk this week, Pegula is also in the doubles semifinals in San Diego. The American duo will face Ulrikke Eikeri and Guo Hanyu.
"I hope I can take both titles, but we'll see," Pegula said. "I've still got some more work to do."
Exhausted just watching 😮
— wta (@WTA) March 1, 2024
An absolute lung-buster rally on set point as Emma Navarro View Profile wins 5 games in a row to take the opener against Saville!#SanDiegoOpen pic.twitter.com/ORtyKbEYNR
No.3 seed Emma Navarro View Profile advanced to her third semifinal of the season after surging past Australian qualifier Daria Saville 6-4, 6-2 in the Cymbiotika San Diego Open quarterfinals.
Ranked No.26, the 22-year-old American has now tallied 15 main-draw wins in 2024, the third-most wins on tour behind No.4 Elena Rybakina View Profile and No.10 Jelena Ostapenko View Profile .
Having won her first Hologic WTA Tour title in January in Hobart, Navarro is bidding to win her first WTA 500 title this week in San Diego, where she was a semifinalist last year.
Navarro will face Great Britain's Katie Boulter View Profile on Saturday. Unseeded in San Diego, No.49 Boulter has knocked out two seeds to advance to the first hard-court semifinal of her career.
An explosive match point 💥@katiecboulter moves past the No.7 seed Vekic and is into the semifinals!#SanDiegoOpen pic.twitter.com/FbF1PB0wHK
— wta (@WTA) March 1, 2024
After coming from a set down to defeat No.2 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia View Profile in the Round of 16, Boulter eased past No.7 seed Donna Vekic View Profile on Friday, winning 6-4, 6-3.
