Maria Sakkari beat Jessica Pegula 7-6(6) 7-6(4) within the opening round-robin singles match of the WTA Finals in Fort Value, Texas on Monday, avenging her loss to the American within the Guadalajara remaining eight days in the past.
For Sakkari, who reached the semi-finals of the 2021 WTA Finals, the victory over world quantity three Pegula marked her first top-five win of the 12 months.
The primary set lasted 71 minutes – a minute longer than their whole Guadalajara remaining – and Sakkari secured it on her third set level of the tiebreak with a forehand passing shot.
The Greek raced out to a 3-0 lead within the second set earlier than Pegula battled again, saving a few match factors and holding serve to power one other tiebreak. Nevertheless, she was unable to ship the match to a deciding set.
“It is by no means simple towards Jess. She’s a tremendous participant, she’s very assured proper now,” world quantity 5 Sakkari mentioned. “I knew it was going to be extraordinarily powerful however I fought onerous and trusted my recreation.”
Within the day’s different singles match, world quantity two Ons Jabeur, who reached her first two main finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this 12 months, is dealing with No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.