Jessica Pegula on Saturday said she would allow herself to enjoy a cold beer after beating world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the Canadian Open semi-finals, but the celebration would be put on ice until the tournament is completed.
The world No. 3 had famously sipped from a can of beer during a post-match news conference following her straight-sets loss to Swiatek at last year’s US Open, with that video garnering thousands of views on social media.
Pegula downed Swiatek for the second time in three meetings this year, sealing a 6-2 6-7(7/4) 6-4 win on Saturday to reach the Montreal final.
Photo: EPA-EFE
She said she would savor the moment only after she secures a first title of the season.
“I don’t know. Maybe after the tournament, yeah. Maybe I’ll allow myself to have a beer,” Pegula told reporters when asked about cracking open another cold one.
“But yeah, that was a funny moment. I get so many people that are, like: ‘I loved when you drank the beer last year,’” she said. “I’m, like: ‘OK. I’m glad everyone enjoyed it.’”
Pegula endured a bizarre moment in the second set tiebreak when the song Cotton-Eye Joe began playing on the speakers in the middle of a rally.
The musical mishap threw the 29-year-old off her game as she lost the set, but she recovered in the next to close out the win.
“I just thought it was funny,” Pegula said. “I’ve never had that happen, let alone with Cotton-Eye Joe. I was like: ‘Is this really happening right now?’ Of all the songs. It was just like: ‘What is going on?’”
“Yeah, it was a bummer, because I hit a really good lob and she barely got it, and I had a really good play on the ball, and she was kind of out of position from the lob that I hit,” she added.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book