Aryna Sabalenka tops Jessica Pegula again in U.S. Open semis

Jessica Pegula had to make her opponent sweat a little more this time, but the result was the same at the U.S. Open on Thursday -- an Aryna Sabalenka win.

The top-seeded Sabalenka defeated fourth-seeded Pegula 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals in New York, advancing to the event's final for the second straight year. The Belarussian beat Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in last year's Open final.

Sabalenka will face the winner of Thursday's second semifinal between Japan's Naomi Osaka -- the 23 seed -- and eighth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova.

Pegula certainly made Sabalenka work on Thursday, breaking the world's top-ranked player twice after falling behind 4-2 to take the first set. Pegula's first service game proved to be her undoing in the other two sets.

Sabalenka broke the 31-year-old American on Pegula's first service game in the second and held serve the rest of the way. She did it again in the third set, but not before Pegula forced four break points in the set and then three deuces in the deciding game.

The 27-year-old Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, served up eight aces to Pegula's three, and saved 5 of 7 break points faced to Pegula's 4 of 7 saved. Sabalenka tallied 43 winners to 21 for her opponent, but also committed 12 more unforced errors (27 to 15).

The rest of the match was very even, statistically. So even, each player won 87 of the 174 total points.

--Field Level Media