NEW YORK (AP) — In January, as Aryna Sabalenka won her second consecutive Australian Open title, Jessica Pegula was eliminated in the second round with a straight-sets loss to the world No. 51.

Of course, it was not the first setback for Pegula. There have been many over the years, from various injuries to hard-to-swallow defeats. But look at them now: On Saturday Number 6 seed Pegula will face number 2 Sabalenka for the championship in US Open.

“If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be in the final of the US Open, I would have laughed out loud because that was just my opinion – I didn’t think I would make it here,” said the 30-year-old American Pegula on Thursday night after earning her first chance at a Grand Slam trophy with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Karolina Muchova in the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.

“To overcome all these challenges and be able to say I have a chance at the title on Saturday is what we play for as players – not to mention that I can do it here in my home country, at my home Slam,” Pegula said. “It’s really perfect.”

Pegula is in the Grand Slam final for the first time at the age of 30

For Pegula, the oldest American in the Open Era that began in 1968, reaching her first major singles final was not always a walk in the park.

For example, Pegula had to undergo surgery for a knee problem in 2013. And hip surgery forced her to take more than half of 2017 off, putting her outside the top 850 and having to work her way back up through lower-level tournaments. This season, she was sidelined for two months due to a rib injury, meaning she was also unable to play in the French Open.

On the court, there was a seven-match Grand Slam losing streak that ended in New York in 2020. And a 0-6 record in major quarterfinals until this week, when She surpassed number 1 Iga Swiateka five-time Grand Slam champion, at that point.

Pegula thought she would get to this point someday

Surely at some point along the way, Pegula gave up hope that she would ever fulfill her childhood dream of winning one of the four most prestigious tournaments in her sport, right?

No not really.

Yes, she admitted, there had been “such low points,” as she put it, when she had doubts about whether she “wanted to continue doing it.”

“But I think at the end of the day, I always kind of came back and said, ‘OK, what am I talking about?’ I always flipped the script a little bit, and I’ve always been good at that. That’s why I’ve always been able to come back from different challenges even better than before,” explained Pegula, a New York native whose parents own the Buffalo Bills in the NFL and the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL.

“Honestly, I didn’t always feel like it would never happen – I almost think the opposite,” she continued. “I always thought, ‘You know what? Eventually you’ll find out.'”

“Someday” definitely seems to be right at the moment.

Pegula’s only loss in the last month was against Sabalenka

Since switching from clay to hard courts after the Paris Olympics, Pegula has a 15-1 record, including a title in Toronto and a runner-up finish at the Cincinnati Open before the success of the last two weeks.

The only loss in this phase came against – yes, you guessed it – Sabalenka, who has been the dominant player on this surface for the past two seasons. Saturday’s match will be Sabalenka’s fourth consecutive final at a major hard court tournament, including the last two championships in Melbourne Park and a Lost to Coco Gauff for the title in Flushing Meadows 12 months ago.

The American crowd did its best to cheer Gauff on that day, embarrassing Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus who has a 45-11 record in 2024.

“Hard losses never make me – how should I say it? – depressed, so I don’t think about not coming back to the tournament. It just motivates me to come back and try again, try harder and maybe work harder on some things that maybe didn’t work in the past,” Sabalenka said after eliminating Emma Navarro of the USA in straight sets in the semifinals. “I still hope to hold that beautiful trophy in my hands.”

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Howard Fendrich has been a tennis writer for AP since 2002. You can find his articles here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich

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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis