Alexandra Eala continues to hit new milestones in her young career, adding another on Saturday in Washington with a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka in 1 hour and 16 minutes to reach the biggest final of her career.

Washington: Scores | Order of play | Draws

Seeking her first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz title, the 21-year-old will face Jessica Pegula, who looked every bit the American No. 1 in the earlier semifinal. Pegula defeated No. 4 seed Diana Shnaider 7-5, 6-4 in 1 hour and 27 minutes to reach her fourth final of the season.

Pegula leads their head-to-head 1-0, having won their lone meeting in last year’s Miami semifinals in three tight sets.

But Eala is a different player now than she was then. She entered that Miami match ranked No. 140; a year later she sits at a career-high No. 28 — a ranking she will improve again after her run this week. On the court, her serve has been one of the most notable areas of growth since becoming a full-time player on tour.

That progress was on full display against Osaka, long considered one of the tour’s best servers. Eala held the edge across the board: first-serve percentage (60% to Osaka’s 54%), first-serve points won (71% to 59%) and second-serve points won (79% to 48%). She dropped just four points behind her second serve all match.

“I think that my serve can be uncomfortable. I think I try to play around a lot with variety,” Eala said in her post-match press conference. “Of course, it would be great if I had a serve that went 200 kilometers per hour. I’d love that also, but it’s a process. Who knows? I’m not going to put a cap on my serve. Maybe I will one day serve 200. You never know (smiling).

“I like to look at it as a multi-dimensional thing. I have a variety of weapons in my bag. I think it’s also a good thing that I don’t rely on my serve alone, although I’m standing by that it’s dependable sometimes.”

Eala faced four break points — all in the fourth game of the match — and erased all but one. Otherwise, she was untouchable.

She broke early for 2-1 in the first set, and although Osaka broke right back for 2-2, Eala earned a second break in the penultimate game and then held at love to take the set. The Filipina broke again to open the second and repeated the pattern, breaking in the penultimate game, this time to earn the chance to serve for the match.

Osaka saved one match point with a forehand return winner, but Eala closed it out to reach her first 500-level final — and her first hard-court final.

“Going into this tournament, I looked at the list, and it was jam-packed,” Eala said. “It was big player after big player after big player. So to be in the final really means a lot to me.”

Pegula fends off Shnaider to reach fourth final of 2026

The tournament’s top seed is back in the Mubadala DC Open final for the second time, returning to the same court where she claimed her first career title in 2019. She will face Eala on Sunday with a chance to lift her second trophy in the US capital.

“That week, I think I’ve said before, was just kind of the monkey off my back,” Pegula said in her post-match press conference. “I remember playing a great final. I played really, really well and was able to handle my nerves and all these other emotions I had going in. It was a great week for me.”

2019 Washington Highlights: Pegula claims first WTA title at the Citi Open

It’s also the same court where she beat Shnaider on Saturday, and while the scoreline suggests it was a straightforward win, the match was anything but.

Pegula quickly fell behind 5-2 in the opening set before ripping off five straight games to steal it from Shnaider’s grasp. The run ultimately became part of a larger stretch in which she won 10 of 12 games, building her own 5-2 lead in the second.

“I felt like it was much more humid today. I wasn’t moving up to the ball quite as well as I did the day before when it was a little hotter and faster and maybe a little bit drier,” Pegula said. “I had to adjust a bit to the conditions and her ball. Luckily, I was able to do that and come back in the first set. But it was only one break, so I was confident that I just had to keep holding on to my serve.”

But Shnaider refused to go away, breaking the World No. 3 as she served for the match and closing the gap to 5-4. But Pegula finished the job on her second attempt, sealing the victory with a cracking crosscourt forehand to return to the Washington final for the first time in seven years.

The stat sheet reflected the scoreboard’s tight margins, with one notable exception: second-serve return points. Pegula won 64% of those points, compared with Shnaider’s 46%.

Pegula will look to continue that edge into Sunday’s final as she chases her third title of 2026 and the 12th singles title of her career.

Routliffe, Sutjiadi win DC doubles

New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi secured the Washington doubles title with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Andreja Klepac and Makoto Ninomiya. It’s the pair’s first title together, and Routliffe’s second in DC after winning with Pegula back in 2022. They did not drop a set throughout the tournament.

“I love playing in DC,” Routliffe said to press. “We’re really happy to get the title today. It was our first week together in a while, so we were just really focused on playing the kind of tennis that we want to play and making teams feel uncomfortable.”

The duo rejoined forces after three and a half years with both in search of a new partner following Wimbledon. The two teams started discussing their potential partnership during the grass-court season, and now, Routliffe and Sutjiadi said they’ll be partners for the remainder of the 2026 season.

“I think we’ll see it as a good start for us,” Sutjiadi said. “Definitely not as a pressure because we know that every doubles teams are very good. We’re just going to do it day by day, match by match. We’re going to try our best every time.”