Rybakina sweeps Pegula for Miami SF

Australian Open winner Elena Rybakina extended her win streak over Jessica Pegula with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat to reach the semi-finals of the Miami Masters on Wednesday.

The Kazakh can do no wrong in the series as she defeated the American billionaire heiress for the fifth time in the past seven months dating to 2022, booking a third final four place in south Florida.

Their most recent meeting came this month in a quarter-final at Indian Wells.

The second-ranked Rybakina will be looking to keep her Miami semi-final record spotless after winning her first two here.

  “It’s always very difficult matches with Jessica. She started playing well, and I was a bit rushing and frustrated,” the winner said.

“But I’m happy that I managed to bounce back and turn it around in the second set. Then we were just fighting, and the early break (first game of the third set) helped me a little bit.

“Couple times I got lucky. I was trying to come a little bit more to the net so it was not easy to just stay back – I had to adapt a little bit.”

Rybakina won seven of eight games in her second-set turnaround, reaching 3-1 in the third.