Jessica Pegula staged an astonishing recovery from a set and a break down to defeat Karolina Muchova and reach her first Grand Slam final at the US Open on Thursday. The sixth-ranked American came through 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 and will take on world number two and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s championship match. Sabalenka reached her second successive US Open final by seeing off another American, Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). “I thought I was lucky to still be in it,” admitted Pegula after seeing Czech opponent Muchova miss an easy chance to go 3-0 up with a double break in the second set.