{"id":206186,"date":"2026-03-26T00:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/206186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:15:15","slug":"jessica-pegula-left-frustrated-as-elena-rybakina-roars-back-to-reach-miami-last-four-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/206186\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula left frustrated as Elena Rybakina roars back to reach Miami last four | Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Pegula had her chances. Midway through the second set of yet another showdown with Elena Rybakina, the American had engineered a flawless start. After bulldozing through the opening set, Pegula\u2019s level at the beginning of set two put her in with a fair shot of snatching a win against her Kazakhstani opponent, who has dominated their recent meetings.<\/p>\n

Instead, Pegula departed Miami with another tough lesson to parse through after being shown once again that the best players in the world pounce on even the smallest drops in intensity. Despite her mediocre start, Rybakina produced a brilliant comeback to reach the Miami Open semi-finals with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that Rybakina is in the best form of her career and, having compiled a \u00adtour\u2011\u00adleading 21 matches in 2026, she has become difficult to beat in the biggest events. Since following up her WTA Finals\u00a0\u00adtriumph<\/a> in November by \u00adwinning her second grand slam title at the Australian Open in January<\/a>, Rybakina has continued to play at a high level in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I was trying to find my game, I was struggling a little bit,\u201d said Rybakina. \u201cBut now we\u2019re doing a good job with the team, we have a plan for each match and I\u2019m trying to follow. Of course sometimes you need to adapt and change something during the match, but everything has been working pretty well for now so hopefully I can just continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rybakina started her month with a run to the Indian Wells final<\/a>, where she held a match point in the final set tie-break before Aryna Sabalenka blazed a backhand winner en route to victory in the best match of the year. Another chapter of the defining rivalry of the 2026 tennis season so far could follow this week. Rybakina, who rose to a new career\u2011high ranking of No 2 at the beginning of the tournament but is seeded third, awaits the winner of the quarter\u2011final between Sabalenka, the No 1, and Hailey Baptiste.<\/p>\n

For Pegula, her fifth consecutive defeat by Rybakina is one of the most frustrating of all. She looked to have things \u00adcompletely under control for well over a set, but after Rybakina \u00adbrilliantly survived three break points at 2-2, the momentum shifted. Rybakina spent the subsequent half\u2011hour \u00addominating the Pegula second serve while \u00adserving\u00a0imperiously.<\/p>\n

The American struggled with her first serve for just a few games, but it was enough for her to find herself down a break at the beginning of the final set. She fought hard until the end and put Rybakina under \u00adsustained pressure in a high\u2011quality final set, but the Australian Open champion found enormous, precise first serves and she was relentless on her first shot behind her serve whenever she needed to be. She closed out another supreme victory.<\/p>\n

It was another harsh lesson for Pegula. Photograph: Rich Storry\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the year Pegula declared herself one of the top three players in the world, an assertion that remains difficult to argue with. The top two players, however, are some distance ahead. Alongside Pegula\u2019s defeats against Rybakina she has also lost five of her past six matches against Sabalenka. Their immense firepower makes Pegula\u2019s tidy, early ball striking look underpowered by comparison.<\/p>\n

Still, Pegula has played quality tennis in many of these encounters and given herself opportunities. She simply has to find a way to take one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m putting myself right there,\u201d the world No 5 said. \u201cI\u2019m \u00adgiving myself the chances and the \u00adopportunities, I think I have elevated my game, I\u2019ve become a better player. I am definitely challenging them, both of them. That\u2019s kind of all I can ask of myself and hopefully some of the wins will come along.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula had her chances. Midway through the second set of yet another showdown with Elena Rybakina, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-206186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-headlines","10":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}