No.4 seed Maria Sakkari battled into her first singles final of the year with a topsy-turvy 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over No.1 seed Jessica Pegula in the Mubadala Citi DC Open semifinals on Saturday.

Sakkari of Greece needed just over two hours to outlast top seed Pegula, the 2019 Washington champion and highest-ranked American. Sakkari moves into her eighth career singles final, and she is now a win away from her second Hologic WTA Tour title.

"I was playing really good back home, but I didn't expect to make the final here," Sakkari said in her post-match press conference.

"Actually, I had a feeling that this tournament is going to be good for me, but at the same time I was like, 'OK, let's see how it goes.' But, yeah, it's paying off. I'm playing good tennis again. I'm [playing] aggressive."

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After beating the American No.1 in the semifinals, Sakkari will face American No.2 Coco Gauff for the title on Sunday, in their first meeting of the 2023 season. Sakkari leads their head-to-head 4-1, including wins in both of their matches last year.

D.C. breakthrough: In her Washington tournament debut, Sakkari has made it all the way to the championship match. Sakkari’s run is even more impressive considering she collected all three of her wins this week in a 29-hour span.

After her first-round bye, Sakkari won both her rain-delayed second-round match with Leylah Fernandez and her quarterfinal clash with Madison Keys on Friday afternoon.

This week marks Sakkari’s first trip to a final since October of last year, when she finished as runner-up at the WTA 1000 event in Guadalajara. Ironically, it was Pegula who defeated Sakkari in that final.

Before this week, Sakkari had made five semifinals this year (not including the United Cup team event), but she did not convert any of those opportunities into a final. However, the Greek made it happen on Saturday as she extended her head-to-head lead over Pegula to 5-3.

Streaky semifinal: Sakkari built a commanding 6-3, 4-1 lead on Saturday, but the Greek was forced to collect herself after Pegula reeled off five games in a row to steal the second set.

In the final set, Pegula saved four break points during a gritty hold for 1-1, as the top seed aimed to complete the comeback with a win. But Sakkari slammed a forehand winner down the line to break for a 4-2 lead, and the Greek eased to victory after saving a break point during her hold for 5-2.

"What I told myself was that it happens almost every week that someone's leading a set and a break and then the opponent comes back," Sakkari said. "So I was like, 'You're not the first, you're not the last that is losing this set after being a break up.'

"Just keep being aggressive, because that's what really worked on the first-and-a-half sets. ... It wasn't easy, but then I saw it as a challenge just to overcome myself, as I said on the court, after losing that second set, just to be able and come back on that third set."

Sakkari finished the match with 36 winners to Pegula's 14, and she had only two more unforced errors than the American.