Pegula powers into fourth straight National Bank Open semifinal

Defending champion Jessica Pegula continued her sterling stretch of success at the National Bank Open with a quarterfinal victory on Saturday night in Toronto.

Toronto: Scores | Draws | Order of Play 

The highest-ranked player remaining in the field, No.3 seed Pegula held off fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour and 29 minutes to reach the final four.

Pegula improved to 2-0 over Stearns, who won her first WTA singles title earlier this year on the clay of Rabat. Pegula needed to fight to capture her latest win over her compatriot, storming back from 5-2 down in the second set.

"I just reminded myself of what I needed to focus on," Pegula said afterwards. "Even though it was 5-2, I knew there was always still a chance I could come back, especially having break points earlier on in the set as well, and that seemed to work for me."

Make it four: Since her tournament main-draw debut in 2021, Pegula has always made at least the semifinals in Canada. Along with her title last year, she posted semifinal showings in 2021 and 2022. Pegula boasts a 15-2 win-loss record in National Bank Open main draws.

Pegula is the fourth woman in the Open Era to make four or more consecutive semifinals at the National Bank Open. She joins Monica Seles (1995-1999), Gabriela Sabatini (1988-1991) and Simona Halep (2015-2018) on that list.

Tale of the match: Pegula eased through the opening set without facing a break point. However, Stearns' heavy hitting carried her to a break lead deep into the second set, and the unseeded player erased the first six break points she faced in that set.

But a perfectly placed service return into the corner allowed Pegula to finally convert a break point in the second set, pulling her back on serve at 5-4. Pegula never looked back, slamming down solid serves in the final game to book another semifinal berth in Canada.

World No.53 Stearns was seeking the first Top 10 win of her career on Saturday night, and her last three meetings against Top 10 opposition had gone three sets. Stearns nearly pulled another member of the Top 10 into a third set, but she eventually fell to 0-7 vs. that echelon.

Shnaider up next: Pegula will face one of the most in-form players of the summer in the semifinals: Diana Shnaider. It will be their first meeting.

In the nightcap quarterfinal on Saturday, No.14 seed Shnaider defeated last year's finalist, No.6 seed Liudmila Samsonova, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Shnaider has made her first career WTA 1000 quarterfinal and semifinal this week.

Shnaider has won 18 matches since June, the most on tour during that timeframe. She also won an Olympic silver medal last week in women's doubles, partnering Mirra Andreeva. It is a summer surge that has Shnaider knocking on the door of the Top 20.

The 20-year-old Shnaider is the youngest semifinalist at the National Bank Open since Bianca Andreescu's run to the title in 2019. She will now face Pegula in an attempt to claim her second Top 10 win this week, having already upset Coco Gauff in the Round of 16.