Stat of the Day: Jessica Pegula scores third win over a No. 1 this year with Sabalenka upset

Jessica Pegula continued her perfect start to her WTA Finals campaign on Tuesday night, taking out Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 6-3, in her second match of the round-robin portion of the event.

She beat Elena Rybakina, 7-5, 6-2, in her first round-robin match.

Her victory over Sabalenka has particular significance, though: she’s now the first American woman to record three wins over a world No. 1 in a single season since Serena Williams in 2012.

Before her victory over current No. 1 Sabalenka in Cancun, Pegula had beaten Iga Swiatek twice while she was No. 1 earlier this year, at the United Cup in January and at Montreal in August.

Serena actually had four wins over No. 1s in 2012, all against Victoria Azarenka—in the Madrid final, the Olympic semifinals, the US Open final and in the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals.

Sabalenka has been one of Pegula’s toughest match-ups over the last few years—she had lost their last four meetings in straight sets, including at the WTA Finals a year ago in Fort Worth, Texas.

But Pegula was just too solid this time, going up a set and racing out to a 5-1 lead in the second set, and—after some heavy late resistance from Sabalenka—prevailing in straight sets.

She finished if off on her seventh match point.

“I’ve watched so many matches where she’s been down match points and she’s won, so that didn’t help,” Pegula said afterwards. “And I know with someone with her game it’s tough, because you don’t know whether to just put the ball in the court—she could hit a winner, she could miss it. In this case she started hitting winners.

“Luckily I powered through, had a tough couple double faults there, but I thought before that I was playing really good tennis.”