Sabalenka set title match with Pegula at Miami Open

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka booked a ticket in her first Miami Open final with a comprehensive 6-2, 6-2 victory over No. 6 seed Jasmina Paolini on Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium, never losing serve to advance to her 12th career WTA 1000 final.

“I definitely say that this was one of the best matches in the season so far,” Sabalenka, who hit 31 winners to 12 unforced errors, said post-match. “I don’t know. I was just so focused on myself, on the things I had to do today.

“It felt like everything was just, like, going smoothly my way. Yeah, super happy with the performance. I felt like I was in the zone.”

In the last 20 years, Sabalenka — who lost to Mirra Andreeva in the BNP Paribas Open final — is the sixth player to reach the final at Indian Wells and Miami in the same season after Kim Clijsters (2005), Maria Sharapova (2006, 2012, 2013), Victoria Azarenka (2016), Iga Swiatek (2022) and Elena Rybakina (2023).

Sabalenka never trailed against Paolini, and the match was only tied twice — at 1-1 in each set. She served six aces, broke the Italian’s serve four times, and wrapped up victory in 1 hour and 11 minutes to advance to face No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula, who ended the Cinderella run of teenage wild card Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, in Saturday’s final.

In the nightcap, Pegula needed 2 hours and 26 minutes to see off Eala, whose Cinderella run came to an end as Thursday turned into Friday in Miami. From 5-2 down to start the match, Pegula turned around the opening set — crucially breaking serve at 5-3 after Eala double-faulted at 40-30, and again at deuce, on the way to a 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3 victory.

Pegula will take a 2-6 head-to-head record against Sabalenka into Saturday’s final as she seeks a fourth career WTA 1000 title. She lost two big hard-court finals to Sabalenka last year in Cincinnati and at the US Open in straight sets, but three of the four sets the pair played in those matches stretched to 7-5.