Pegula dethrones Swiatek to book Cincinnati final against Gauff

The women’s all-American final will be followedby a men’s title clash between Frances Tiafoe and Arthur Fils of France.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.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4CONCACAF asks Infantino to skip youth event amid FIFA governance crisislist 2 of 4Former world champion boxer Zolani Tete shot and killed in South Africalist 3 of 4Arsenal rout Coventry 3-0 to begin Premier League title defence in stylelist 4 of 4Argentina’s Paredes gets 10-game ban for World Cup final scuffle with Spainend of listGauff 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.“Crazy match today,” Pegula said after needing nearly three hours to subdue Swiatek, who was coming off her first title of 2026 in Toronto last week.“A lot of back and forth, a lot of breaks,” she said. “Really windy, kind of odd conditions. I felt like we were playing well and then not playing well.“It was really tough to kind of get a gauge on the match.”The pair rode a rollercoaster of breaks and re-breaks before Pegula took a 5-4 lead in the final set, Swiatek saving three break points before double-faulting on a fourth.Pegula quickly closed it out, firing a service winner on match point.“I was just really happy with the way I was able to kind of handle just a lot that was going on today,” the 31-year-old American said. “I did a good job no matter what was happening.”