Jessica Pegula acknowledged the quality and drama of her rivalry with Aryna Sabalenka after a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 loss at the WTA Finals on Tuesday. The result continued a recent pattern: Sabalenka has beaten Pegula on the way to a pair of Grand Slam titles and two WTA 1000 crowns since last season began, and Pegula has now lost nine of 12 matches against her opponent.

The two said they bring out high-level tennis in each other, but Pegula again lamented falling just short, this time after being a break up in the final set. The last three meetings between them have all played out over three sets.

On the rivalry and its place in her career, Pegula said: “I do think we have really great matches, memorable matches,” she said. “I wish I won more of them … even my coaches were saying, they’re like, ‘Whenever you guys play each other, it seems like you guys seem to bring out such a high level in each other.’

“So, I feel like, do I love losing? No. But I feel like, if you asked me in 10 years, like I look back and had all these super memorable matches with her. I think it’s, it’s pretty cool. I just wish I won more of them.”

Describing Sabalenka’s intensity, Pegula added: “I felt like she just got really angry and played really well, which tends to be what she does,” Pegula continued. “I feel like when she starts getting really hyped up and yelling, ‘Come on,’ and screaming … that’s kind of when you’ve activated another level to her. So I can either go one of two ways, and I felt like it just kind of went against me today, and she played well.”

Despite the setback, Pegula remains alive in the group. With a 1-1 record, she can reach the semifinals if she defeats Jasmine Paolini, who was eliminated from knockout contention after losing to Coco Gauff in straight sets in the other Stefanie Graf Group match on Tuesday, and if Sabalenka beats Gauff to bolster Pegula’s chances.

Looking ahead, Pegula said: “I think obviously it’s going to be a bit mental knowing that I need to win the match in order to move forward in this in this event,” Pegula said. “But at the same time, a lot of you know tactical stuff [is important] in order to kind of see what I can do differently from the last time that I played her. ]”

Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the semifinals after a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Jessica Pegula in a Riyadh round-robin match that lasted two hours and three minutes.

“She pushed me, and I love it,” Aryna Sabalenka said after beating Jessica Pegula 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in their Riyadh round-robin match on Tuesday.

The result added another chapter to a one-sided overall rivalry: Sabalenka has won nine of their 12 meetings, seven of those in straight sets. Still, recent encounters have tightened. At the US Open, Pegula won a set for the first time in two years before Sabalenka prevailed 6-4 in the third. In Wuhan, Pegula ended a four-match skid against Sabalenka by winning a third-set tiebreak.

Both arrived in form. Pegula had beaten Coco Gauff and Sabalenka had beaten Jasmine Paolini in earlier matches in Riyadh. On Tuesday, Sabalenka captured the opening set by forcing errors and dictating enough points. Pegula answered in the second by stepping in, counter-punching and coming to the net.

“In the second set, she just stepped in and played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “In the third set I was just thinking, ‘I’m gonna go after my shots. I’m gonna try to stay even more aggressive. Put that speed back with her and hope that I’ll get my chance.’”

Pegula threatened to take control early in the final set, breaking for 2-1 and appearing to move toward a 3-1 lead. Sabalenka reversed course with a series of aggressive returns, a forehand passing shot and decisive groundstrokes that produced multiple breaks and a run to 5-2 before sealing the win with a forehand winner.

“You know what,” Sabalenka said to herself, ‘I have nothing else to do, I’m just going as hard as I can, and heavy as I can, down the lines.”

Statistically the match was noisy: Sabalenka hit only two more winners than Pegula and made 19 more unforced errors, but she forced Pegula into 36 errors to 19. With a 2-0 record in the round-robin, Sabalenka has moved into the semifinals. For all her success, she has never won the WTA Finals and has reached the title match just once; this is the first season she has been No. 1 for the majority of the year.

The defending champion preserved her WTA Finals defence with a composed performance, defeating Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-2 to level her record in the Stefanie Graf Group at 1-1. The round-robin format, Gauff said, offers “another chance to prove yourself” if a player begins the tournament poorly, and she used Tuesday’s match to respond after a rocky start to the week.

Gauff arrived at the event having dropped her opener to Jessica Pegula in three sets, a match in which she produced 12 double faults and 45 unforced errors. Against Paolini she was far steadier: she served just three doubles, was broken once and closed the contest in one hour and 19 minutes. “I was just trying to play relaxed,” Gauff said after the victory.

The result eliminated Paolini from semifinal contention regardless of the later outcome between No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka and No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula. Gauff’s win also continued a reversal of recent head-to-head form. After losing her first three matches to Paolini this season, she has now won two straight meetings — first in Wuhan, and now in Riyadh. After beating Paolini in China, she won the title.

Gauff acknowledged the history of her early struggles at the year-end event. “I played a WTA Finals were I lost all three matches [in 2022], so I was determined to not make this a repeat of that. I knew that today’s win was important to keep myself in the tournament.” The victory kept her title defence alive, but it did not put qualification entirely in her hands.

She must await the conclusion of the Sabalenka-Pegula match to learn which scenarios against Sabalenka would send her through. The volatility of the round-robin phase is a defining feature of the WTA Finals and one that makes retaining the crown particularly challenging. Gauff is seeking to become just the fourth woman in the past 25 years to capture back-to-back year-end titles.