Jessica Pegula beat number 14 seed Diana Schnaider 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 23 minutes in the semifinals of the National Bank Open in Toronto. Pegula reached the semifinal at the National Bank Open in 2022 before winning her second WTA 1000 title last year.
Schnaider earned an early break in the second game of the first set before Pegula came back by breaking twice to win the first set 6-4. Both players had six winners in the opening set, but Schnaider had 13 unforced errors to Pegula’s six. Pegula earned a break in the seventh game to take a 4-2 lead after a double fault from Schnaider. Pegula earned a second break in the ninth game to close out the second set 6-3.
Schnaider had won 17 of her last 19 matches before this Sunday’s final, including her first top 10 win over Coco Gauff in the Round of 16. Schnaider has won three titles on three different surfaces in Hua Hin, Bad Homburg and Budapest and won the Olympic silver medal in women’s doubles with Mirra Andreeva in Paris last week.
Pegula has a 16-2 record at the Canadian Open and is aiming to become the first woman to win Montreal and Toronto in back-to-back years since Martina Hingis in 1999 and 2000.
“Getting a chance to defend my time is something that does not always happen, so I am excited that I get to put myself in a good spot tomorrow to do so. It’s cool to have my name with a lot of other really big names in history like Chris Evert and Monica Seles that have either played well here or been able to defend the title as well, so it’s super special. It feels like home. I like the atmosphere, I like the cities that we go to. Everything seems easy. I have a base in Buffalo, which is not that from here, it’s not super far from Montreal either. I am comfortable up in the northeast kind of area”, said Pegula.
Pegula set up a final against world number 132 Amanda Anisimova, who beat Emma Navarro 6-3 2-6 6-2 to reach her first WTA 1000 final. Anisimova becomes the lowest-ranked Canadian Open finalist in 40 years.
Anisimova fired 28 winners to Navarro’s 10 and dropped just three points on her serve.
Anisimova broke in the second game and served out the first set on her third opportunity.
Anisimova went up an early break in the third game of the second set to take a 2-1 lead before Navarro came back to win five consecutive games to force the match to a deciding set. Anisimova earned her first break in the third game of the decider to take a 2-1 lead. Anisimova saved a break point in the sixth game to hold for 4-2 before breaking in the seventh game to take a 5-2 lead. Anisimova served out the win at 15 in the eighth game.
Pegula leads 2-0 in her head-to-head series against Anisimova, but their last match on the green clay in Charleston went down to a third set tie-break.
Anisimova has become the second player to beat four top-20 opponents (Emma Navarro, Aryna Sabalenka, Anna Kalinskaya and Daria Kasatkina in a single tournament in 2024 after Barbora Krejcikova in Wimbledon.
Anisimova reached a career-high number 19 in 2019 after advancing to her first Grand Slam semifinal at the age of 17.
Two US players will feature in the Canadian Open final for the first time since 2021, when Serena Williams met Jennifer Capriati.
“This is a huge accomplishment for me, and something I have been working really hard towards. I am just super happy, honestly, with my week here, and I am pretty surprised with how well I have been able to do so far”, said Anisimova.
