"It's the match people wanted, and now they're going to get it" - Jessica Pegula sets up 'battle of the divas' at WTA Finals

Jessica Pegula narrowly made it into the WTA Finals knockout stage after a number of close calls. She managed to find a way past the impressive Linda Noskova 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-5 in a thrilling contest. The American saved a match point en route to the semi-finals, where a familiar name will be waiting for her.

After winning the opening two matches, Noskova had already done enough to get herself into the knockout stages. Pegula had lost to Gauff in the opening round of contests, crucially in three sets, before seeing off Marta Kostyuk in two. She had the slender advantage on Gauff but was under pressure when the American No.1 took down Kostyuk and forced Pegula to win, and that is exactly what she did.

Twice the 32-year-old broke in the first set, and twice Noskova responded immediately. The tiebreak went heavily the way of Pegula, but Noskova was able to get the match back on level terms despite at one point being a break of serve down in the second set.

Group A all came down to this one set, and Noskova was the first to grasp control. It was for the briefest of moments with Pegula wise to the break. A match point by the Czech was spurned at 5-4, and Pegula did not look back. She won the final three games and is in the semi-finals for the third time in five attempts, the second consecutively.

The 2023 runner-up spoke honestly about her performance with the Tennis Channel afterwards. "I was a little frustrated because I did feel like I was playing better. I felt like she hadn't really found her serve. She maybe wasn't playing her best for the first set and a half, and then I just felt like I lost my serve a bit," she said.

"I gave her too many looks on my second serve, and then she started freeing up, finding her rhythm and finding her timing. When she went up 2-0, I just felt like she was in a rhythm. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but I knew I was still getting into a lot of her service games and returning well. So I thought, 'Okay, I just need to find a way to get this back and focus on my serve.' I served much better in the third set, and I think that helped me."

The mental aspect of tennis is huge, and it proved to be a crucial factor in Pegula's productive session. "I just kept telling myself that I wanted to give myself a chance to still win the match. It's not over. I've had a lot of really up-and-down matches with her before, where I've come back, she's come back, and vice versa. I think just knowing that it wasn't that far away for me was important.

"It might have seemed that way for a second, but I was thinking, 'I'm playing a great match, I'm playing well, just give yourself the best chance.' Also, if this was going to be my last match of the year, I wanted to go out and compete. This is why I'm here: to play in front of these great fans and compete as well as I can."

Pegula did not have her best performance on serve, with just 61% of first serves and 41% of second serves won, finding eight double faults. However, the ace count made up for it. She smashed her personal best with 16 aces in the contest. "I feel like no one's really given me a little credit for that stat," she admitted. "I've turned it around this year.

"The serve, as you guys know, is a work in progress. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Sometimes you have to hit different serves to get your timing and rhythm back. I think I've become a little better at understanding that it is a tough shot. These girls return really well. I've got better at hitting much different serves. I like to call it pitching, you know, pitching different pitches, changing up the speed and changing up the pace. I've got better at that. I actually didn't think I served that well until today, so I'm glad it finally bailed me out a little bit when I needed it."

Before the tournament had even started, controversy was rife. This stemmed from an unaware Pegula blasting Mirra Andreeva following a practice session. All of it was picked up on the microphones blissfully sitting on the side of the court, with Pegula labelling her 19-year-old foe as a 'diva.'

It obviously went very viral online, with the WTA forced to come out and apologise. Fortunately, both players saw the funny side of it. Andreeva has done her talking on the court, yet to drop a set against Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka while having won the final 11 games against the former World No.1.

She will top Group B and, for the first time, will take on Pegula. The stars have aligned following that recent debacle, and it is set to be a thrilling matchup with so much riding on it. "The storyline just writes itself. It's the match people wanted, and now they're going to get it," Pegula commented.

"She's played great. I watched her play Aryna Sabalenka, and I feel like she's such an efficient player. She moves so efficiently, she's fast, and I think she has a great serve. She's strong, hits the ball pretty hard and is smart. You could see how efficiently she made her tennis look against Sabalenka."

It is an unusual feeling, according to Pegula, when your first matchup with someone is at the WTA Finals. "I'm going to do my best. It's crazy because we've literally only practised twice and we've never played each other. It's such a weird feeling knowing you're playing someone for the first time at the WTA Finals. That doesn't happen very often. I think it'll be a good match, hopefully."

Whatever happens, the former US Open finalist has vowed to embrace the diva tag. "Maybe she's turned me into a diva. I like it." She went on to clear the air a bit more. "She was cool about it. She was like, 'Yeah, that's what people call me.' She didn't really care, so it was funny. Maybe I need a little bit of that."