Pegula Saves 5 Match Points, Denies Kalinskaya For First Grass Title In Berlin

A rainy Berlin 500 level WTA event saw American Jessica Pegula save five total match points to deny Anna Kalinskaya 6-7(0), 6-4, 7-6(3) in the Sunday final. It was Pegula’s first grass title and fifth overall.

“I knew I could play well on this surface and giving myself a couple of extra weeks on grass clearly paid off,” Pegula said to the WTA. “I played some really good tennis this week and I feel like I beat some really good girls, especially on grass. To be able to gut out a win like that is cool.”

Kalinskaya is in the midst of her best season having made the Australian Open quarters, the Dubai finals and found love with ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner who won in Halle. And she very nearly completed the boyfriend-girlfriend double as she held four championship points with Pegula serving 4-5 in the decider and another one at 5-6.

Pegula began the day finishing off Coco Gauff in a match that was suspended due to rain at 3-1 in the second set breaker.

In a once-loaded field that had an original cut off under 30, Pegula had missed the entire clay season due to a rib injury but in just her second event back she’s victorious.

“This is the most grass court confidence that I’ve had probably going into Wimbledon,” Pegula said. “Hopefully that pays off as well. Being able to tough out a couple of matches and have a couple of long matches, especially for the body to get ready, and dealing with a lot of the rain delays too. That’s always possible at Wimbledon as well, so that was good prep mentally as well.

“I feel like I’ve been through a lot this week, so if I could handle this week I think at Wimbledon I should feel pretty good.”