Jessica Pegula was frustrated after her 6-2, 3-6, 4-6 loss to Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
Pegula thought it was too early in the tournament to face Rybakina, especially since they met in the quarterfinals.
The third seed came out on top again, beating Pegula after a two-hour and 15-minute contest that kept fans entertained throughout.
Rybakina, who currently holds the Australian Open title, will now take on world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals.
Pegula was clearly frustrated with herself after falling short against Rybakina for another time.
Jessica Pegula disappointed after winning more points but losing to Elena Rybakina
Pegula spoke about her Miami Open exit, saying: “It sucks when you feel… you win more points and you lose the match.
“Like, what do you really tell yourself? When you look at ‘What can I do differently?
“Obviously, there’s some things I think I can still do differently, but… I almost rather, like, just get killed… 2 and 2… instead of being like ‘Oh, you played great. And you served well, and you won more points, but you lost, and that’s just frustrating’.”
The American will be disappointed not to have held onto her early advantage. Still, Rybakina deserves plenty of credit for how she battled back into the match.
And as she mentioned after the match, Pegula (100) finished with more points than Rybakina (98), yet it still wasn’t enough to secure a win.
Elena Rybakina praises Jessica Pegula after beating her in Miami
It was by no means a perfect performance from Rybakina, who admitted to being lucky at times throughout the match.
But she was grateful to come out on top, saying afterwards: “I feel every game was important, and of course, I made a lot of unforced errors, and as I said in the first set I was rushing a little bit and quite many mistakes.
“Also Jessica, she played really well in the conditions. I need to get used to a little bit since the previous match I played late.
“Her game also is fast and the ball stays low so I’m happy overall that I found the way. I was not rushing as much in the second set and won these important games.”
Rybakina will now be looking to enjoy the same outcome against top seed Sabalenka, who also beat an American, Hailey Baptiste, to reach the last four.
It leaves Coco Gauff as the last American remaining at the Miami Open, with the home favorite meeting Karolina Muchova in the other semifinal.
She boasts a superb 5-0 head-to-head record over the Czech, while Sabalenka leads Rybakina 9-7 in their head-to-head.
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