Elena Rybakina registered a comeback win over Jessica Pegula
Rybakina booked her place in the final following an error-strewn third set from Pegula
Rybakina is the third player representing an Asian country to reach the final at the WTA Finals
Elena Rybakina will compete for the WTA Finals title after reaching the showpiece match with a comeback victory over Jessica Pegula in Riyadh.
Rybakina booked her place in the final following an error-strewn third set from Pegula, with the sixth seed claiming a 4-6 6-4 6-3 victory in just over two hours on Friday.
Both players struggled to hold serve in the opening set, with back-to-back breaks, two in favour of Pegula, being enough for the American to take the early lead of the match.
However, Rybakina dusted herself down and made an impression on serve, breaking Pegula in the fourth game before quickly racing into a 4-1 lead over her opponent.
But Pegula did not go down without a fight, getting to within one game of Rybakina, before she missed four game points, which proved to be her downfall in the set.
Rybakina got the better of Pegula's serve to take the match the distance, and from there she controlled proceedings as her opponent grew more and more frustrated.
Though the pair exchanged blows in the third set, Rybakina got herself over the line, sealing her progression with a fierce serve that Pegula could only return wide.
Data Debrief: Rybakina continues top 10 dominance
Rybakina has won the most consecutive matches against top 10 opponents in 2025 (six between Ningbo and the WTA Finals), equalling Aryna Sabalenka's streak between Indian Wells and Madrid.
She is also the first player to defeat three top-five (Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova in the round-robin and Pegula here) at a single WTA event since Swiatek and Pegula at the WTA Finals 2023 in Cancun.
Indeed, since the event's inauguration in 1972, Rybakina is the third player representing an Asian country to reach the final at the WTA Finals, after Li Na (2013) and Qinwen Zheng (2024).
