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| Jessica Pegula (photo by Daniel Ward) |
Top seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula, who is now known as Three-Set Jess, did it again today.She defeated rising star and 4th seed Iva Jovic 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 at the Credit One Charleston Open. The matchlasted two hours and 35 minutes; she has now spent more than ten hours on the court this week.
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| Iva Jovic (photo by Daniel Ward) |
Pegula told the media: "...I don't think I'm playing my best tennis, either, and I think I've had to kind of find things that are working on the day and kind of find patterns that are working for me that day when the rest of my game isn't there or certain shots aren't there. So I think that's something I've been doing really well this week."
Pegula also addressed her serve, which is good deal faster than it was a year ago. "I'm always working a little bit on placement and getting my serve bigger, but it kind of just happened naturally with all the stuff that we've been working on....
"And I have a pretty live arm. And so I've always thought my serve could be much bigger for my size because with my arm being pretty live for how tall I am.
"I'm always working a little bit on placement and getting my serve bigger, but it kind of just happened naturally with all the stuff that we've been working on. I haven't really changed much, to be honest, as far as using my legs or my motion. It's really more just, I think, using my hand....And I have a pretty live arm. And so I've always thought my serve could be much bigger for my size, because with my arm being pretty live for all tall I am. So I've always kind of been like, why isn't my serve bigger?"
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| Yuliia Starodubtseva (photo by Daniel Ward) |
In the other semifinal, Yuliia Starodubtseva defeated 2019 champion and 5th seed Madison Keys 6-1, 6-4. Starodubtseva was supposed to have competed in the qualifying rounds, but when Amanda Anisimova withdrew from the tournament, the Ukrainian player was placed into the main draw, and she has certainly made the most of it. Today, she experienced something that is quite typical of a fairly inexperienced player competing against a top seed: She had a chance to serve for the match at 5-3 in the second set, and she was broken. But then she broke Keys at love to get a chance to compete in her first WTA final.
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| Madison Keys (photo by Daniel Ward) |
"I feel like I did a great job breaking her all the first set, and I felt like I could do it again," Starodubtseva said of how she managed the victory after dropping serve.
Pegula and Starodubtseva, who is number 89 in the world, have never played each other. Starodubtseva's aggressive style of play should make for an interesting final.
The doubles final will feature the team of Desirae Krawczyk and Caty McNally competing against the team of Anna Bondar and Magdalena Frech.
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| all photos by Daniel Ward |
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