Captain Lewis Gregory said Somerset’s form “stands for nothing” if they do not win a trophy this season, after reaching their fourth consecutive T20 Finals Day.

The 2023 Blast champions beat Northamptonshire by 17 runs and will play Surrey in the semi-finals on 14 September aiming to become the first club to defend the title.

Somerset are also in the One-Day Cup final against Glamorgan on 22 September, and are still in the hunt for a first County Championship title, as they chase three trophies across three formats.

“We said at the start of the year that everything that leads into September is about setting ourselves up to win things,” Gregory told BBC Radio Somerset.

“We’ve been outstanding for five months of the year but that stands for nothing if we don’t win anything.

“We’re here to win trophies and we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to do that across three formats which is amazing, and hopefully we can bring a few home.”

Pegula has ground her way up the rankings over the past few years, culminating in her reaching a much-wanted Slam final.

It has not been easy – she has been asked questions for years about her quarter-final struggles, having previously reached the last eight of every major but failing to kick on in six attempts.

She split with long-term coach David Witt at the start of the year before struggling with injury, with a neck and back problem disrupting her clay-court season.

Pegula has also had little joy at the Slams, missing the French Open and losing in the second rounds of the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

She was superb against an off-colour Swiatek earlier in the week to put her quarter-final hoodoo behind her – but she started terribly against Muchova, much to the shock of the crowd.

Watched by her family, including her father, Terry, who owns the Buffalo Bills, Pegula sprayed errors around the court, with Muchova winning 19 of the final 23 points to rattle through the opener.

It looked as though the Czech, a beautifully deft player, would rout Pegula when she broke serve in the first game of the second set and backed it up for a 2-0 lead.

Pegula then found herself 30-40 down on serve and staring at a double break deficit, before Muchova missed a routine volley and momentum swung back towards the American.

Urged on by the crowd, the two traded breaks, before Muchova produced her worst tennis of the match to be broken and send proceedings to a decider.

Although Muchova upped her level, Pegula was dialled in, rarely missing from the baseline, and she claimed a crucial early break before advancing as her opponent speared a shot long.

Northern Ireland opened their 2024 Nations League campaign with a 2-0 win over Luxembourg at Windsor Park.

Paddy McNair and Dan Ballard scored early goals to give Michael O’Neill’s side just their second win from 17 games in the competition.

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