CINCINNATI -- Jessica Pegula fought off a ferocious challenge from Leylah Fernandez to advance to her second straight WTA 1000 semifinal at the Cincinnati Open. A champion last week at the National Bank Open, the World No.6 defeated Fernandez 7-5, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) to extend her winning streak to eight matches. 

Cincinnati: Scores | Draws | Order of Play

Pegula will face a resurgent Paula Badosa Sunday's semifinal. Badosa defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-2 to advance to her second semifinal of the hard-court summer and first at a WTA 1000 since 2022 Indian Wells. 

The other semifinal will see World No.1 Iga Swiatek take on No.3 Aryna Sabalenka.

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Injuries kept Pegula on the sideline for four WTA 1000s (Doha, Dubai, Madrid, Rome) and one Grand Slam (Roland Garros) this year, but the American's summer surge has put her back on track. After winning her first title of the year in Berlin in June, Pegula began her summer hard court season at No.20 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard.

With her run through Toronto and Cincinnati, Pegula will surge into the Top 8 when the new standings are released after this week. She can rise as high as No.6 if she wins the title.

Pegula's trademark resilience has been on display this week in Cincinnati, where she is into her fifth semifinal of the season. After rain delayed her opening match on Thursday, the 30-year-old notched two wins in one day on Friday, beating Karolina Muchova and Taylor Townsend. Her duel with Fernandez would be her third match in two days. 

Fernandez paved her way to her third WTA 1000 quarterfinal by saving match points against No.4 Elena Rybakina in the second round to earn her first Top 5 win since her run to the 2021 US Open final. She followed that up with a tidy 6-1, 6-4 victory over Diana Shnaider. 

In hot and windy conditions on the Grandstand Court, holding serve proved a struggle for both players. From 2-2 in the opening set, Pegula and Fernandez exchanged seven consecutive breaks before Pegula steadied herself for a love hold to take it 7-5. 

With a set in hand, Pegula raced to a seemingly insurmountable 4-0 lead in the second set before Fernandez used her physicality to take control of the set. The 21-year-old Canadian surged to win five straight games before dominating the tiebreak to take the grueling match into a third set. 

Pegula led 3-0 in the deciding set but, once again, could not shake off Fernandez's relentless play. Fernandez saved three match points in the final game of the match to hold and force a deciding tiebreak. But too many aggressive errors from Fernandez proved the difference in the tiebreak, and Pegula sealed the win after 3 hours and 4 minutes.