Montreal, Aug 15 (IANS): Italy's Camila Giorgi outlasted Jessica Pegula of the United States, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to enter her maiden career WTA 1000 final in the National Bank Open here on Sunday (IST).
The 29-year-old Camila will meet No.4 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic for the title. Karolina took down top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-4 in the day's first semifinal.
World No. 71 Camila, who beat Belgium's Elise Mertens, Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova, and American Coco Gauff en route to the semifinals, added another upset to her list this week by taking down world No.30 Jessica in a tough two-hours-and-11-minute contest.
"I'm very happy, because actually today was, I think, a great match, even if the second set maybe I didn't play my game," Camila was quoted as saying by wtatennis.com. "I lost a little bit the rhythm. But then I came back and was, I think, a third set, amazing."
Jessica had beaten Camila in three of their four previous meetings at all levels -- in their only earlier meeting at the Tour level, the American had defeated Giorgi in the final to win her first WTA singles title at the 2019 Citi Open in Washington, D.C.
This time around, it was the former top-30 player Camila who ended up the victor. Camila had 27 winners to Jessica's 14, while having one fewer unforced error than the American.
"I think now I'm playing better. I know better how to choose the shots. When I need a little bit to slow down [or] accelerate. It's more variation in my game, I think. This is very important," said Camila.
A rally forehand winner gave Giorgi the only break of the opening set for 3-1, and the hard-hitting Italian kept fighting on from there, converting her third set point with an ace to clinch the one-set lead.
Jessica, though, regrouped from a medical time-out for her leg in the first set, and came back strongly in the second set.
Camila dropped serve in the first game of the decider, but that was her only setback in the final set as she stayed steady with her groundstrokes while Jessica's errors increased.