Pegula advances to Adelaide semis; Navarro out, Putintseva wins thriller
Top seed Jessica Pegula moved into the Adelaide International semifinals after Ashlyn Krueger was forced to retire due to a right thigh injury. No.7 Pegula led 6-4, 2-0 in the all-American quarterfinal when No.54 Krueger called the trainer before subsequently retiring.
Adelaide: Scores | Schedule | Draws
Adelaide is Pegula's first tournament of the 2025 Hologic WTA Tour season. She will face either Yulia Putintseva for a spot in her first final since the US Open after the Kazakhstani player won a late-night thriller 7-6(3), 6-7(9), 6-4 over No.6 seed Diana Shnaider.
Putintseva, ranked at a career high of No.25 this week, led 4-1 in the second set and held her first two match points in the ensuing tiebreak. But a contest that was filled with entertaining shot-making and gripping rallies saw Shnaider roar back to force a decider. Putintseva once again opened up a 4-1 lead, but Shnaider kept threatening to peg her back in a tense home stretch before Putintseva converted her seventh match point.
Krueger started her season with a strong quarterfinal run in Brisbane, but had a quick turnaround to play qualifying in Adelaide. She lost in three sets to Katerina Siniakova in the final round of qualifying but moved into the main draw as a lucky loser. The 20-year-old seized her opportunity, scoring back-to-back Top 20 wins over Marta Kostyuk and Paula Badosa, with both matches going a full three sets.
Pegula was set to start her season in Brisbane last week but withdrew to give herself extra time to prepare for the new season. The 30-year-old American picked up a knee injury in November at the WTA Finals Riyadh but has looked sharp in her two showings in Adelaide.
"I like being match-tough," Pegula said before the tournament, "but at the same time I know if I can just get a few matches, get that confidence, I can also do well without a lot of prep, too. I think you want to look at both those sides.
"To start the year, I definitely like playing an event. Who doesn't want to start off the year on a good note, too. This tournament is really tough. If I can do well here with the way the draw is, I feel like it will give me a lot of confidence going into AO."
A three-time quarterfinalist at the Australian Open, Pegula is seeded No.7 in Melbourne. She has been drawn into the top half of the draw and will face Australian wild card Maya Joint in the first round.
Earlier in the day, Liudmila Samsonova earned her first Top 10 win in over a year, ousting World No.8 and No.2 seed Emma Navarro, 6-4, 6-4. Samsonova's last Top 10 win face over Elena Rybakina at 2023 Beijing, where she went on to make the final. Samsonova will face Madison Keys, who notched her 10th win in 12 matches against No.3 seed Daria Kasatkina.
