Second seed Jessica Pegula is through to the final of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open with a 6-2 4-6 6-1 victory over fifth seed Maria Sakkari on a very windy Friday in Doha.
Sakkari was the player that Pegula defeated in the Guadalajara final to win biggest title of her career, but in their subsequent match-up the Greek had the upper hand at the WTA Finals. On Friday in Doha, Pegula overcame a second-set slump and stormed through the decider to move into her first final of 2023.
The world No.4 Pegula relatively comfortably won the first set of her Qatar TotalEnergies Open semifinal and started the second set strongly with a 2-0 lead. Sakkari then won two consecutive games to level the score in the second set, but Pegula once again went ahead, 4-2. The American couldn’t maintain the lead, though, as the Greek player won four games in a row to force a deciding set.
When Sakkari broke back at the start of the third set to level at 1-1, it looked like we would have an entertaining finish to the match, but it turned into an absolute dominance of Pegula.
Pegula is also through to the doubles final with Coco Gauff. As a team, the
Americans have won three titles together.
