SAN DIEGO — Sixth-seeded Marta Kostyuk fought off an early deficit Saturday to beat prime seed Jessica Pegula 7-6 (4), 6-1 and attain the ultimate of the San Diego Open.
With the shock comeback, Kostyuk, of Ukraine, moved into Sunday’s last the place she’s going to face qualifier Katie Boulter, who bested third-seeded Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-1 within the different semifinal match.
After Pegula jumped out to a 5-1 lead within the first set, Kostyuk tossed her racket in disgust twice. However she regained her composure and went on to seize the following 4 video games, breaking Pegula’s serve to knot the rating 5-5.
Kostyuk then held serve to take a 6-5 lead earlier than Pegula knotted issues at 6-6. Within the tiebreaker, Kostyuk took benefit of a number of errors by Pegula to say the primary set.
Now underneath management and surging, Kostyuk broke Pegula’s serve to begin the second set and promptly raced to a 5-1 lead. At that time, it was Pegula who took an indignant swipe on the courtroom floor together with her racket.
With Pegula serving at match level, Kostyuk slammed Pegula’s lob in triumph.
“I wasn’t actually pleased with the trajectory of my sport,” Kostyuk stated. “I saved making an attempt to do one thing to vary issues. , I actually do not know the reply to what occurred after that.”
Within the first of Saturday’s semifinals, the unseeded Boulter continued her shocking string of upsets together with her win over Navarro. Boulter’s match towards Kostyuk marks her first look in a WTA 500 last.
Boulter took the primary set after twice breaking Navarro’s serve. Performed in threatening, wind-swept circumstances, the match was halted shortly after the primary set for 33 minutes by a sudden downpour. Simply earlier than the deluge, Boulter held serve within the opening sport of the second set.
When play resumed, Boulter, of England, eased previous Navarro with aggressive baseline shot-making and an onslaught of 24 winners.
“Once I noticed a black cloud coming, I used to be type of distracted as a result of it is by no means simple getting back from a rain delay,” Boulter stated. “However I used to be very pleased with my tennis and the way in which it turned out.”
Boulter’s highway to the ultimate included wins over No. 28-ranked Donna Vekic of Croatia and No. 13 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.
“Actually, at the beginning of this week, I did not assume I might be on this place,” Boulter stated, “however I am simply going to go on the market and swing away.”
Navarro, who reached the occasion’s semifinals in late 2023 as a qualifier, admitted she was annoyed by Boulter, who misplaced solely three factors on her serve within the opening set.
“I attempted to get some traction, however I simply could not fairly execute after I needed to get it going,” Navarro stated. “She put loads of stress on my service and return video games, so it was actually powerful to get any factors.”
The San Diego Open is a WTA Tour 500 occasion with a complete purse of $922,573, introduced by Cymbiotika.
