No.3 seed Jessica Pegula moved into her second final of the year with a 7-6(3), 6-1 win over former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the Guadalajara Open Akron semifinals on Saturday night.
Pegula, who has qualified for both her singles and doubles debuts at the WTA Finals, is one win away from her first title of the year and her second career title (following 2019 Washington D.C.). Here are key numbers behind the achievement:
40: World No.5 Pegula notched her 40th match-win in WTA main draws this season with her 1-hour and 29-minute triumph over Azarenka. Pegula becomes just the fourth player to hit 40 victories for the year, joining Iga Swiatek (62), Ons Jabeur (46) and Daria Kasatkina (40).
Sunday OOP @WTAGuadalajara:
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 23, 2022
1PM
Singles SF: Sakkari vs. Bouzkova (Sakkari leads 7-5)
3PM
Doubles SF: Xu/Yang vs. Sanders/Stefani
6PM
Singles Final: Pegula vs. Sakkari or Bouzkova
Doubles Final: Danilina/Haddad Maia vs. Xu/Yang or Sanders/Stefani#GDLOPENAKRON
2: Pegula's two 2022 finals have both come at the WTA 1000 level; she also reached the final in Madrid earlier this year, falling to Ons Jabeur. Pegula is the first American to reach two or more WTA 1000 finals in a single year since Sloane Stephens in 2018.
"I think it’s just capping off the end to a couple amazing years, really," Pegula said afterward. "I’m just super happy to be through to a final."
38: In fact, U.S. No.1 Pegula has become an expert at WTA 1000 tournaments since the start of 2021. Pegula has won 38 matches at WTA 1000 events over the last two seasons, more than any other player, including World No.1 Iga Swiatek, who sits in second place with 36.
If you told me 5 years ago when I couldn’t string 2 matches together that I would have this stat… 🤯 you can always improve, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise https://t.co/W6gfFWGmNC
— Jessie Pegula (@JLPegula) October 22, 2022
4: To make it into the final, Pegula had to beat four Grand Slam champions in a row this week, with victories over Elena Rybakina, Bianca Andreescu and Sloane Stephens preceding her win over two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka.
18: Despite falling behind 3-0 in the first set, Pegula recovered and outhit her opponent on the day, with 18 winners to Azarenka's 11. Pegula also had eight fewer unforced errors than Azarenka as she leveled their head-to-head at 2-2.
"Vika is always tough no matter what, especially on hard courts, especially in faster conditions," Pegula said. "I’ve lost to her the last couple of times, I knew it was going to be tough. I’m just glad, in a semifinal as well, that I was able to hold on to that first set.
"I thought it was really important to not let her get any momentum or more confidence by winning an easy first set, so I’m definitely really happy with how I handled that situation. [Being] able to take that first set and start off strong in the second against someone as experienced as her is always going to give me a lot of confidence."
1-3: Pegula will now face No.4 seed Maria Sakkari in Sunday's final. Pegula is just 1-3 head-to-head against Sakkari.