Jessica Pegula rallied in the third set to topple defending champion Iga Swiatek and book a title showdown with Coco Gauff at the Cincinnati Masters tennis tournament. World number three Pegula won a “crazy” match against Swiatek 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 on Saturday in the US city. Gauff powered past giant-killer Sara Bejlek 6-4, 6-1, ending the unseeded Czech’s dream run that included a fourth-round victory over world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
Their all-American Sunday night final will be followed by a men’s title clash between American Frances Tiafoe and Arthur Fils of France. Fils charged into his first Masters 1000 final with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli in a match delayed for 45 minutes by rain and lightning. Swiatek and Pegula then waited out another rain delay before their match, which was also briefly interrupted two games in.
I felt like we were playing well and then not playing well. Pegula quickly closed it out, firing a service winner on match point. Swiatek blinked first as Pegula held at love for a 4-2 lead, but Swiatek won the next three games before Pegula broke again, finally taking the set when Swiatek smacked a volley into the net on set point.
They had exchanged two breaks in the second when Swiatek broke in the final game to square the match. Tiafoe, runner-up to Jannik Sinner in Cincinnati in 2024, returned to the final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over fellow American Brandon Nakashima. Tiafoe saved three set points in the opening set, breaking Nakashima five times in all to earn the win in less than two hours.
The American predicted a “h*** of a show” against Fils, whose 68-minute win over seventh-seeded Cobolli made him the youngest French Masters finalist since a 20-year-old Richard Gasquet in Toronto two decades ago. Fils admitted he had been unsettled by the weather delay. The rain arrives, you wait and when you come back conditions are completely different,” he said.
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