Swiatek beat No.16 seed Pegula, the last American standing in singles at the Miami Open, in an hour and 48 minutes.
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Iga Swiatek beat Jessica Pegula 6-2, 7-5 in the Miami Open semifinals on Thursday night, claiming her 16th consecutive match win. The Polish second seed is in her first Miami Open final and third consecutive WTA 1000 final overall. Swiatek beat No.16 seed Pegula, the last American standing in singles at the Miami Open, in an hour and 48 minutes.
“Even though it’s the middle of the night, I feel like I’m going to get some time to chill out today, because it was a really intense match and I had to give everything,” Swiatek said after the match.
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Swiatek will now face Naomi Osaka, the former World No. 1 in an exciting championship match. In the first semifinal of the day, Osaka defeated Belinda Bencic for the first time at tour level. “I am excited for sure [about facing Osaka in the final], but on the other hand for me, the most important job is this is a match like any other,” said Swiatek. “I don’t want to change my routines, I don’t want to change my attitude, because it’s been working out pretty well. I’m going to treat it like any other match.”
Swiatek has not lost a match at any of the WTA 1000 events this year, where she has amassed her career-best winning streak. She won the first WTA 1000 event of the season in Doha, then another WTA 1000 event in Indian Wells a fortnight ago.
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In the Miami Open semifinals on Thursday afternoon, former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan defeated No. 22 seed Belinda Bencic of Serbia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to her first Miami final. Osaka beat Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in a comeback victory that took just over two hours, advancing her to her fourth career WTA 1000 final. Following victories in 2018 Indian Wells and 2019 Beijing, Osaka will go for her third WTA 1000 title.
“In the second set I just told myself, ‘Listen, if she beats you, someone is going to have to carry you off the court in a stretcher, because you’re going to fight for everything,'” Osaka said after the match. “I think I just got opportunities and I was able to see them as opportunities. So I was able to push myself through it.”
“I’m honestly glad that this was such a tough match, because I feel like you need that learning experience, and I learned a lot from today.”
