Pegula sets title match with Anisimova in Toronto

Jessica Pegula who won the title last season will be defending her crown in this season’s final after straight sets victory on Sunday to book her spot in a second consecutive final in Toronto.

The 30-year-old stormed into another National Bank Open final with a 6-4, 6-3 semifinal victory in an 1-hour and 23-minutes against No.14 seed Russian Diana Shnaider.

“Getting a chance to defend my title is something that doesn’t always happen, so I’m excited that I get to put myself in a good spot tomorrow to do so,” Pegula said afterwards. “I think it’s cool to have my name with a lot of other really big names in history that have either played well here or been able to defend the title as well, so it’s super special,” Pegula said in an on court interview after the match.

Jessica Pegula will meet Amanda Anisimova in an all-American final on Monday.

Amanda Anisimova advanced to her first WTA 1000 final after defeating No.15 Emma Navarro 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the semifinals of the National Bank Open on Sunday. Now ranked No.132, Anisimova is the lowest-ranked Canadian Open finalist in 40 years.

Pegula leads Anisimova 2-0 in their head-to-head, but their last match, on the green clay of Charleston this year, went down to a third-set tie break.

Anisimova’s win over Navarro was her fourth Top 20 win of the week, coming off victories over No.3 Aryna Sabalenka, No.12 Anna Kalinskaya and No.10 Daria Kasatkina.