Ekaterina Alexandrova reached the semi-finals of the tournament in Miami after a comeback win against home representative Jessica Pegula 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in exactly two hours of play.
After taking the scalp of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the round of 16, Alexandrova also dealt with the fifth-seeded American, despite trailing by a set. The first six games of the opening set were tied, but from 3-3, Pegula went on a three-game streak to take the lead. In the second set, Aleksandrova played harder and pulled ahead 5-2 before her opponent returned one of the breaks, but only to settle for a more respectable result. In the decisive third set, the two traded breaks before the Russian broke in the ninth game and then served successfully to advance to the last four.
Another American is waiting for her there - Danielle Collins, who announced in January that this will be her last season on the Tour. Collins progressed to the semi-finals after dropping five games to France's Caroline Garcia.
Collins performed very strongly, winning 90% of first serve points in the entire match and breaking Garcia's serve three times. In addition, she did not give a single break point to the French tennis player. The American will play for the first time against Alexandrova.
In the other semifinal, last year's finalist Elena Rybakina will play three-time champion Victoria Azarenka. /BGNES
