![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/610X150-Slide_PRO-PLAYER_5-21-26.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDishing a final-set bagel, a sharp Pegula dismissed Sabalenka 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-0 to charge into her 23rd career final at the Berlin Tennis Open.<\/p>\n
It is Pegula\u2019s third career grass-court final, including her second final in Berlin where she won the 2024 championship. The flat-hitting Pegula scored her fourth win in 13 meetings vs. Sabalenka.<\/p>\n
The third-seeded Pegula will play for her third grass-court crown on Sunday when she meets eighth-seeded Czech Linda Noskova in the final.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s second, rain-delayed semifinal, Noskova swept Filipina wild card Alexandra Eala 6-2, 6-4.<\/p>\n
It is Noskova\u2019s seventh career final and first on grass. If the 13th-ranked Noskova takes the title, she will crack the Top 10 for the first time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another perplexing final-set collapse from Sabalenka, who lost to Diana Shnaider 6-3, 5-7, 0-6 in the Roland Garros quarterfinals earlier this month. In that stunning defeat, Sabalenka spiraled losing 10 consecutive games in a free fall she could not stall.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know when was the last time that happened to me that I lost 10 games in a row,\u201d Sabalenka said in Paris. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I guess mentally I got into very deep, deep, dark hole over there, and I just couldn\u2019t get back mentally on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Pegula was mentally tougher at crunch time in advancing to her third final of the 2026 season after title runs in Dubai and Charleston. Pegula is playing for her 12th career title and for her third championship on a third different surface.<\/p>\n
Four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka fell to 33-5 on the season suffering only her second Top 10 loss of 2026.<\/p>\n
A precise Pegula won 11 of 13 first-serve points in the final set.<\/p>\n
Struggling to defend her second serve, Sabalenka won just one of eight second-serve points in the decisive set.<\/p>\n
In the first set, Sabalenka stormed back from triple break point down, saving five break points in all, in a gritty seventh game that saw her hold for 3-4.<\/p>\n
Swooping forward, Pegula belted a backhand drive volley down the line, wrapping up a strong 46-minute opening set.<\/p>\n
Leaving the court to reset, Sabalenka came right back and exploited Pegula\u2019s first double fault for a 2-0 second-set lead.<\/p>\n
Serving at 2-5, Pegula was down double-set point, but denied both set points. Sabalenka steered a relatively routine short backhand pass wide on the first set point and Pegula eventually held for 3-5.<\/p>\n
Sliding a drive down the line, Pegula broke back in the ninth game for 4-5.<\/p>\n
In the second-set tiebreaker, Pegula seized a 3-1 lead then came the rains prompting chair umpire Marija Cicak to suspend play. When play resumed after a two hour, 19-minute rain delay, a revitalized Sabalenka ran off six of the next seven points to reinforce her reputation as tiebreak queen and force a final set.<\/p>\n
Driving the ball down the line, Pegula converted her fourth break point to break for a 2-0 lead in the decider and never looked back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, June 20, 2026Photo credit: Berlin Tennis Open Facebook Rain suspended play during today\u2019s second-set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-718974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}