MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Jessica Pegula stopped the string of upsets at the Miami Open by ending the stalwart run of Britain’s unseeded Emma Raducanu on Wednesday night.
The fourth-seeded Pegula won 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 in a two hour, 25 minute battle, to move into her third Miami Open women's semifinal in four years. Pegula, the last American in the field, faces the teenage wild card from the Philippines, Alexandra Eala, on Thursday.
Pegula's match ended at 11:23 p.m. and forced the postponement of the men's quarterfinal between Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda until Thursday.
Raducanu, who won the 2021 U.S. Open, came in ranked 60th world after experiencing multiple coaching changes and injuries.
Pegula won the first set. But Raducanu flashed her power in taking the second set, though not before she appeared to struggle physically with Miami’s high humidity that reached 70%.
Grimacing through points and showing signs of overheating, Raducanu posted five set points on Pegula’s serve but couldn’t convert. Pegula then held to close to 5-4.
At that juncture, medical personnel took Raducanu’s blood pressure and pulse rate as the chair umpire declared a medical timeout. The medical officials rubbed ice bags on Raducanu’s legs and put cold towels around her neck.
Raducanu sprang to life and dominated the tiebreaker 7-3.
In the third set, Pegula rallied, going up an early break at 2-0. On her third break point, Pegula put away Raducanu's short ball and ended the match by breaking Raducanu at love.
In a nearly three-hour, men’s quarterfinal, a cramping, 14th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov barely survived the oppressive humidity to outlast No. 23 seed Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Dimitrov was led off the court by a tournament doctor and ATP physio after sitting in his chair for over 25 minutes, saying he was feeling “dizzy."
Dimitrov, a Miami Open finalist in 2024, saved a match point in the third set when trailing 5-6 before forcing a tiebreaker. He squandered seven set points in the opening set and lost the tiebreaker 6-4.
He will face the Djokovic-Korda winner in the quarterfinals.
The high seeds were falling earlier on Wednesday.
Soon after unseeded wild card Eala stunned No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek in a straight-set women's quarterfinal, men’s top seed Alexander Zverev got bounced by No. 17 seed Arthur Fils of France, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fourth-round men’s match postponed by rain.
Fils, who beat American Frances Tiafoe in his previous match in a marathon three setter, will face Jakub Mensik in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
In the third set, Fils broke Zverev at 3-3 and kept the German moving. On match point, Fils pounded a ball down the left sideline that the top seed couldn’t retrieve.
Fils, 20, received treatment on his back after the first set but rallied to win the next two, winning in two hours.
“I was feeling not great in the rallies," he said. "I’ve had a little problem in my back since I was young, so sometimes it hurts me a little bit. I had to find a rhythm, more aggressive and come into the court to play my game and not let him play. Because when you let him play, he is one of the best tennis players in the world. I’m really happy about the way I did it.”
Eala, ranked 140th, is on the verge of becoming the first star player to ever come out of the Philippines after topping Swiatek 6-2, 7-5.
Eala became the third wild card to reach the Miami Open semifinals, following Justine Henin in 2010 and Victoria Azarenka in 2018.
She never rattled as the first four games went to at least one deuce and five of the first six games were service breaks. Swiatek held serve just twice in the match and committed 32 unforced errors in the one hour, 39-minute battle.
Eala has beaten three major winners during her remarkable run — Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam winner from Poland.
“There is a lot of emotions, definitely,’’ said Eala, who had never beaten a top 40 player. “Happiness has to be on the top of the whole list.’’
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This story has been changed to correct the spelling of Raducanu throughout.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Alexander Zverev, of Germany, hits a return to Jacob Fearnley, of Great Britain, during the Miami Open tennis tournament, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
FILE - Arthur Fils of France gestures during his third round match against compatriot Ugo Humbert at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Duke freshman Cooper Flagg swooped across the paint and swatted an Alabama player’s shot completely off the court.
The ball landed in the stands. Flagg and the Blue Devils -- they’re headed to the Final Four.
Duke's long, tall, NBA-ready standouts smothered the Crimson Tide's nation-leading offense and even papered over Flagg’s rough shooting night to lift the Blue Devils to the program's 18th Final Four with an 85-65 victory Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament's East Region final.
Flagg made only 6 of 16 shots, including a brick that got stuck in the flange of the rim, but still finished with 16 points. Kon Knueppel, another potential lottery pick, led the Blue Devils with 21 points, and Tyrese Proctor — who came to the postgame news conference with the freshly cut net hanging from his neck — finished with 17.
But the most important stat: Alabama's offense, one coming off a record-setting night from 3 in the Sweet 16, failed to crack 70 points for only the second time this season.
The Crimson Tide's 35.4% shooting from the floor was their worst all season and their 25% from behind the arc (8 for 32) matched their fourth-worst showing of 2024-25.
“To hold them to 65 points is incredible,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “We watched them play the other night. They scored 113 and made 25 3s. The biggest thing for us was not taking the bait of getting so spread out.”
Mark Sears, who came one short of a tournament record with 10 3s two nights earlier, finished with one this time. His six points were his fewest since he got shut out in limited playing time in a win over LSU in January.
“They’ve got length all over the place, just look at their starting lineup,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said when asked to explain his team’s struggles.
The top-seeded Blue Devils (35-3) won their 15th straight. At the Final Four in San Antonio, they'll play the winner of Sunday's game between Houston and Tennessee.
Their win erased any chance of an all-Southeastern Conference show at the Final Four, but with No. 1 Florida winning earlier, it kept alive the prospect of all four top seeds playing on the sport’s biggest stage for only the second time.
Khaman Maluach — he of the 9-foot-8 standing reach — scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, had two blocks and altered a few more Alabama shots.
Duke shot 53.6% despite its best player’s rough night.
Flagg was hardly bad in this one. He had nine rebounds, three assists and the one mega-block that sent Mouhammed Dioubate's floater flying over press row.
But in a game in which both teams were focused on taking away the other’s best player, it was Duke that did it more effectively, switching off on Sears, locking down the perimeter and never letting him find breathing room.
The fifth-year senior’s first bucket of any kind came nearly 18 minutes into the game and the shot was a 16-footer from the elbow — the exact kind of midrange shot Oats’ team of dunkers and 3-point specialists avoids.
Sears’ first 3 came with 16:19 left in the game. His final line: 2 for 12 from the floor, 1 for 5 from 3. He also had six assists.
“It was by committee,” Duke guard Sion James said. “We were switching a lot. We knew the biggest thing for him is showing him bodies, making sure whoever was guarding the ball is not on an island by himself.”
Labaron Philon led the second-seeded Crimson Tide (28-9) with 16 points. Not a single Alabama player made more shots than he missed.
Scheyer, leading the program to the Final Four for the first time since his predecessor Mike Krzyzewski’s last season in 2022, has up to six NBA prospects on his roster.
“Loose, confident, competitive and not fazed by this environment,” Scheyer said of his group of freshmen, led by the 18-year-old Flagg, who are trying to bring the first title back to Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2015.
The only other Final Four to feature all No. 1 seeds was in 2008 when Kansas, Memphis, UCLA and North Carolina made it. The site: San Antonio.
It wasn’t a totally lost night for Tide fans. Shortly before tipoff, the Alabama women’s wheelchair hoops team beat Texas-Arlington 67-52 for its fifth straight national championship.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.
Alabama's Grant Nelson (4) dunks the ball in front of Duke's Cooper Flagg (2) in the first half of an Elite Eight round NCAA college basketball tournament game Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
