Jessica Pegula is a major championship finalist, rallying to win U.S. Open semi

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- A Grand Slam title is within Jessica Pegula's reach.

Pegula will play for the U.S. Open championship on Saturday following her rally to victory in the semifinals late Thursday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

After losing a set for the first time in the tournament, and eight of nine games at the start of her match with Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, the Buffalonian and crowd favorite in New York City came back to win nine of 11 points on her way to a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory in her first semifinal appearance at a major tournament.

Pegula, the No. 6 seed, will next face the world's No. 2 player Aryna Sabalenka at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Sabalenka, last year's runner-up to Coco Gauff at Flushing Meadows, returned to the championship match by holding off a late push to beat No. 13 Emma Navarro of the U.S. 6-3, 7-6 (2). Pegula is 2-6 in her career against Sabalenka, who has won two Grand Slams in four major tournament final appearances. Sabalenka won their last meeting in the Cincinnati Open final.

With her father Terry Pegula, owner of the Buffalo Bills and Sabres, among family and supporters in attendance, the last American left in the women's tournament continued her late summer surge.

"It's amazing," Pegula said in her on-court interview. "I'm glad that they are able to share this moment with me."

Pegula has now won 15 of her past 16 matches, reaching the Cincinnati Open final a week after repeating as Canadian Open champion.

Having lost in her previous six Grand Slam quarterfinals, Pegula broke through with a dominant triumph in straight sets Wednesday against world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Playing on back-to-back nights, the oldest American woman to reach her first major semifinal, the 30-year-old Pegula regained her top form after a sluggish start against Muchova, who also had not lost a set in her first five matches at Flushing Meadows.

“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.”

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.

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 Swiatek, a five-time major champion.

It 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.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.