Pegula to vie for US Open title after semis stunner

NEW YORK -- Jessica Pegula shrugged off a sluggish start and came back from a set and a break down at the US Open to defeat Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday night for a berth in her first Grand Slam final.

The No. 6-seeded Pegula, a 30-year-old from New York, has won 15 of her past 16 matches and will meet No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka for the title on Saturday.

Things did not look promising for Pegula early: Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up but unseeded after missing about 10 months because of wrist surgery, employed every ounce of her versatility and creativity, the traits that make her so hard to deal with on any surface.

The slices. The touch at the net. The serve-and-volleying. Ten of the match's first 12 winners came off her racket. The first set lasted 28 minutes, and Muchova won 30 of its 44 points.

"I came out flat, but she was playing unbelievable. She made me look like a beginner," Pegula said. "I was about to burst into tears because it was embarrassing. She was destroying me."

Muchova grabbed eight of the first nine games and was one point from leading 3-0 in the second set. But she couldn't convert a break chance there, flubbing a forehand volley, and everything changed.

"I was thinking, 'All right. That was kind of lucky. You're still in this,'" Pegula said. "It comes down to really small moments that flip momentum."

Quickly, the 52nd-ranked Muchova went from not being able to miss a shot to not being able to make one. And Pegula turned it on, demonstrating the confident brand of tennis she used to eliminate No. 1 Iga Swiatek, a five-time major champion, in straight sets on Wednesday. Pegula had been 0-6 in major quarterfinals before that breakthrough.

Took Pegula a while to play that well Thursday, but once she got going, whoa, did she ever. All told, she collected nine of 11 games, a span that allowed her to not merely flip the second set but race to a 3-0 edge in the third.

Muchova, a 28-year-old from the Czech Republic, who hadn't ceded a set in the tournament until then, began to fade. After going 7 for 7 on points at the net in the first set, she went 11 for 19 in the second. After only seven unforced errors in the first set, she had 19 in the second.

And all the while, the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that was flat at the beginning -- save for the occasional cry of "Come on, Jess!" -- was roaring.

It was the 25th US Open women's semifinal in the Open era to feature a 6-1 or 6-0 opening set; before Thursday, only three women had come back to win after dropping the first set by that score -- Sabalenka (2023), Victoria Azarenka (2020) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (2004).

Pegula's win means that both the men's and women's final will feature an American, the first time that has happened at a major since 2009 Wimbledon. The last time it happened at the US Open was in 2002; that year, Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams, and Pete Sampras beat Andre Agassi.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.