Elise Mertens survived after 3 match balls in the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 Dubai Tennis Championships, winning versus the 27-year-old American Jessica Pegula by 2-1 (5:7; 7:5; 6:0) for less than two hours.
The match started with an exchange of serving games from both players. Elise Mertens was the first, who succeeded to break her opponent’s serve in the 5th game, taking advantage of 3-2. After the break, she won also her serving game and advanced even more to 4-2. The 7th game in the first set was actually the most challenged and hardly won by Jessica Pegula. Following the hard win, the American player reached a break on zero and the result became 4-4. After exchanging breaks, the first set was heading to a tiebreak, but Jessica Pegula made a surprising break on Elise Mertens’s serve and won the set with 7-5.
The beginning of the second set was under the domination of Jessica Pegula. She took a break in the 4th game and advanced by 3-1, followed by winning of its own serving game and heading by 4-1. However, after exchanging a game, the result became 5-2, and during the service of Elise Mertens, Jessica Pegula reached a deuce but failed to register a break. And when the match looked closed, Elise Mertens broke her opponent on zero and returned into the match. Everyone expected a turnaround, but the next game was strong for Jessica Pegula, who had three match balls. However, she lost all of them and Elise Mertens made the result 5-5. She won the set by 7-5.
Jessica Pegula fell psychologically and the third set was won by Elise Mertens by 6-0.
