Jessica Pegula made her opponent sweat a little more this time, but the result was the same at the U.S. Open on Thursday -- an Aryna Sabalenka win.

The top-seeded Sabalenka defeated fourth-seeded Pegula 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals in New York, advancing to the event's final for the second straight year. The Belarussian beat Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in last year's Open final.

Sabalenka will face the winner of the second Thursday semifinal between No. 23 Naomi Osaka and No. 8 Amanda Anisimova of the United States.

Pegula certainly made Sabalenka work on Thursday, breaking the world's top-ranked player twice after falling behind 4-2 to take the first set. Pegula's first service game proved to be her undoing in the other two sets.

Sabalenka broke the 31-year-old American on Pegula's first servi

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