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Pegula made a blazing start to the contest with
a couple of early breaks to peg back Sakkari, who has
rediscovered her best form this month after claiming the
Guadalajara title.
World number six Sakkari found her groove late in the first set
after going 5-1 down, but the 28-year-old could not stop the
fourth-ranked Pegula from closing it out.
The pair traded breaks early in the second set before Pegula
stepped up the pressure again, firing a sizzling forehand winner
en route to a 4-2 lead.
Pegula finished the job when she forced Sakkari into making a
mistake from the back of the court.
"The faster courts here probably help me a little more than the
slower surfaces I've played her in the past," said Pegula, who
beat Sakkari for the fourth time in their ninth meeting.
"I tried to take advantage of that."
Earlier, Kudermetova outlasted former French Open runner-up
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(6) 6-7(2) 6-3 in a gruelling battle
lasting three hours and 25 minutes to make her second final of
the season.
Russian eighth seed Kudermetova, who stunned world number two
Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, sealed the victory on her
fifth matchpoint to deny Pavlyuchenkova a place in what would
have been her first final since Roland Garros in 2021.
"Physically I feel OK. I can play another match like that," said
Kudermetova. "Physically I'm always strong. Mentally maybe
sometimes not enough.
"But today I'm really happy that I managed to win the match and
to be in the final."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by
William Mallard)
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