Jessica Pegula, Iga Swiatek to meet in Cincinnati semis

Jessica Pegula continued her dominance of fellow American Amanda Anisimova on Thursday, pulling out a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (4) win to improve to 6-0 all time in the series and advance to the semifinals of the WTA's Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio.

Third-seeded Pegula will take on seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland in the semifinals. The defending champion advanced when No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan had to retire due to an apparent lower left leg injury in the first set, trailing 4-1.

Pegula won by the narrowest of margins, claiming 96 points to ninth-seeded Anisimova's 95. She came out on top despite not saving any of the five break points she faced and needing to take a medical timeout down 3-0 in the second set.

Pegula converted four of seven break-point chances on Anisimova's serve and took advantage of her opponent's 56 unforced errors.

"Amanda is an amazing player, an amazing ball striker. I know I have a good record against her, but literally every single match is like it was today," Pegula said after the match. "So I know I have to try and survive. Sometimes she can play lights-out tennis where there's not much you can do, like in the second set. But I think I was able to start getting some momentum at the end of that set and take it into the third and get ahead. It still wasn't enough, but I got there."

It seemed Pegula was going to cruise in the decisive third set when she broke Anisimova twice to open a 3-0 lead, but she was broken back twice, including in five points when attempting to serve out the match up 5-4, and then fell into a 4-3 deficit in the tiebreaker.

Pegula responded by winning the final four points to reach her seventh semifinal of the season.

As for the other match, Rybakina was serving at deuce and hit a midcourt backhand volley, approached the service line and came up favoring her lower left leg. She immediately went to her bench and was examined by trainers, but returned to the service line. After misfiring on her serve, she immediately waved to the chair umpire that she could not continue.

Swiatek had broken Rybakina in the second game in a rematch of last week's finals in Toronto, where the Pole triumphed in straight sets.

Swiatek seemed somewhat rattled by her rival's condition after the match.

"I was feeling anxious just looking at this situation. I hope Elena will be fine," Swiatek said. "The next tournament is the priority. I know this one is important as well. But U.S. Open is U.S. Open. I hope she's gonna be ready for that. She's super close to being No. 1 in the world. It's a shame. I thought we were playing a good match. But health is a priority. I hope she's gonna be OK."

To add insult to injury, Rybakina needed two more match wins in Cincinnati to replace Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka as the No. 1 player in the WTA rankings.

Swiatek leads the all-time series vs. Pegula, 7-5. Swiatek won the last meeting, routing Pegula on the clay of Rome in May. But Pegula had taken the prior two meetings, including the last one on hard courts at the 2024 U.S. Open.

--Field Level Media