It will be Aryna Sabalenka vs. Jessica Pegula for Cincinnati Open championship

MASON, Ohio − From a WTA standpoint, the Cincinnati Open was a week highlighted by upsets.

When the dust settled, though, there were three seeded players in Sunday semifinals and two of the top 6 players in the world will play Monday for the Rookwood Cup when Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula meet on Center Court.

Here’s how the action unfolded on Center Court on a soggy Sunday.

Aryna Sabalenka wallops World No. 1 Iga Swiatek to advance to first Cincinnati final

World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka finally broke through Sunday afternoon at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

After three previous semifinal exits in Mason, Sabalenka knocked out World No. 1 Iga Swiatek , 6-3, 6-3, to reach her first Cincinnati Open finals.

"Sounds like I broke the wall, finally," Sabalenka said in her on-court interview .

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Sabalenka had only beaten Swiatek three times in 11 previous matchups, but the hard-hitting Belarussian was sharp throughout the match, landing five aces and winning 55% of second-serve points while holding Swiatek to just 22%.

"When someone leads against you 8-3, you kind of feel like, 'okay, I gotta keep it interesting. I gotta get my win," Sabalenka said. "I think it was a brilliant performance from me."

Sabalenka, who will pass Coco Gauff for the No. 2 spot on the WTA leaderboard after this tournament, now has five career victories over a No. 1 opponent and Sunday marked the ninth time she's advanced to a WTA 1000-level final.

The World No. 1 did not go down quietly, though. Trailing 5-1 in the second set, Swaitek saved seven match points before taking the game.

It took until the 10th match point for Sabalenka to notch a backhanded winner and give Swiatek just her fourth straight-set loss of the year.

"I played much better than I expected, honestly, especially on this surface," Swiatek said. "I'm happy with the result anyway, and already kind of focusing on what I need to do to feel even better in New York."

Sabalenka has not dropped a set this week in Mason, winning 49 of 74 total games. After losing in the finals to Swiatek at two previous 1000-level tour stops this year (Rome and Madrid), Sabalenka is bidding for her first singles title since defending her Australian Open crown in January.

Sabalenka will face either Jessica Pegula for the Rookwood Cup on Monday.

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Jessica Pegula on the verge of tennis history in Cincinnati

After a 3-hour win over Leylah Fernandez in the quarterfinals, World No. 6 Jessica Pegula had another long day in Mason when her semifinal against Paula Badosa was delayed for over an hour in the second set.

When the match resumed just after 4 p.m., Pegula dropped the second set but battled back to win the third to reach her first Cincinnati Open final, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Pegula is now 3-0 all-time against Badosa, the World No. 36, who hadn’t dropped a set coming into Sunday’s match.

Pegula, who has turned her year around after injuries, is now one victory away from becoming the first player to win Canada (National Bank Open) and Cincinnati back-to-back since Evonne Goolagong in 1973.

Pegula took advantage of eight double faults from Badosa to dominate the opening set. In the third set, the 30-year-old American turned the tide by breaking Badosa’s serve in the eighth game before rallying from 30-love in the ninth.

“This set, I wanted to remind myself to be aggressive.” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “I knew it was gonna be hard to break her.”

Now with a career-best nine-match winning streak and 18-5 on hard courts this year, Pegula is the third American to reach five-plus WTA 1000 finals, joining Serena Williams (18) and Venus Williams (6).

Pegula will play one of the other three players to reach double-digit WTA 1000 semifinals since the start of the 2020 season when she squares off against Sabalenka Monday.

Sabalenka has won four of six meetings against Pegula, though the American won the last matchup with a straight-set victory (6-4, 6-3) in the first round of the 2023 WTA Finals.

“Aryna is obviously an amazing hard-court player,” Pegula said. “I think that I’m good on these fast hard courts, as well, and I think I can give her some trouble.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: It will be Aryna Sabalenka vs. Jessica Pegula for Cincinnati Open championship