No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina extended her recent dominant record against No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula to reach her third Miami Open semifinal, recovering from a slow start to advance 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Miami: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Rybakina had lost three of her first four meetings with Pegula in 2022 and 2023. They did not face each other again for nearly two years — and since then, the Kazakhstani has emphatically turned the rivalry in her favor with a run of five victories over Pegula in the past seven months. Wednesday’s result follows wins in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, the WTA Finals, the Australian Open semifinals and the Indian Wells quarterfinals. She now leads the head-to-head 6-3.
World No. 2 Rybakina advances to her second semifinal of 2026, having lifted her second major crown at the Australian Open in January. She will next face either World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the Australian Open and Indian Wells finals, or the unseeded American Hailey Baptiste.
Rybakina has a 2-0 record in Miami semifinals to date, having defeated Pegula in 2023 and Victoria Azarenka in 2024; both times, she went on to lose the final, to Petra Kvitova in 2023 and Danielle Collins in 2024.
More to come…