June 20 (Reuters) – World number one Aryna Sabalenka’s Wimbledon preparations suffered a setback after she was beaten by American Jessica Pegula 6-4 6-7(4) 6-0 in the Berlin Open semi-finals.
Pegula will face Linda Noskova in the final after the Czech eighth seed ended the run of Filipino Alexandra Eala with a 6-2 6-4 victory.
Sabalenka, who exited the French Open in the quarter-finals, struggled to find her rhythm after a slow start, and Pegula took the opening set following an early break.
After a rain delay, Sabalenka took the second-set tiebreak before Pegula reasserted control to race through the decider.
“I told myself after I ended up losing that second-set tiebreak that before the rain delay, I had a lot of momentum. She just hit a double fault. I felt like I kind of had it there and I was serving well,” said 2024 Berlin champion Pegula.
“I was in a good rhythm, and then having to get off court and losing that pretty quickly — only winning one point in the tiebreak was a little tough.
“But she’s No. 1 in the world for a reason and I feel like I gave her too many easy shots and she went for it and that’s just what happens.”
All four of the Belarusian’s Grand Slam titles — her most recent at the 2025 U.S. Open — have come on hard courts, and she is still chasing a first Wimbledon crown after three semi-final runs.
She lost this year’s Australian Open final to Elena Rybakina, a year after finishing runner-up to American Madison Keys.
Noskova made a dominant start, securing an early break to swiftly win the first set. Eala ran out of ideas in the second as Noskova secured the win.
(Reporting by Paras J. Haji in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)