After losing her previous 6 Grand Slam quarter-finals, Jessica Pegula scored on her 7th
After losing her previous 6 Grand Slam quarter-finals, Jessica Pegula scored on her 7th when she upset World No 1 Iga Swiatek on Wednesday night to reach the Last 8 of the US Open. “I think, today, I wanted to come out playing the way I wanted to play. I had an idea in my mind of what I learned from the last time I played her at Finals, and play, kind of, within myself, and then just see where she was at. I could tell right away she was frustrated on the serve.”
Pegula earned the biggest win of her Grand Slam career on Arthur Ashe Stadium in front of an ecstatic New York crowd, moving past Swiatek, 6-2 6-4, to reach her first major semi-final at her home Grand Slam. “Thank god I was able to do it, and finally—finally!—I can say semi-finalist,” she said. “To do it primetime, in Ashe, against the No 1 player in the world, it’s crazy. But I knew I could do it, I just had to go out and execute my game.”
Remarkable Summer for Pegula
The 30-year-old has now won 14 of her past 15 matches, having lifted her 2nd title of the season last month at the National Bank Open in Toronto, and finishing as runner-up at the Cincinnati Open. It has been a remarkable summer for Pegula, who was forced to skip 4 WTA 1000s in the first half of the year as well as the French Open due to an injury and illness.
In their first meeting of the season, and the first since the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun, which Swiatek easily won, Pegula dominated the opening set from the first game. Neither had yet to lose a set in New York, but in their 10th career meeting, with Swiatek leading 6-3 in their head-to-head record, it was the American who came out sharper.
“I think, today, I wanted to come out playing the way I wanted to play,” Pegula said. “I had an idea in my mind of what I learned from the last time I played her at Finals, and play, kind of, within myself, and then just see where she was at. I could tell right away she was frustrated on the serve.”
Baseline Dominance
Swiatek made barely a third of her first serves in the opening set, while Pegula pounded her signature groundstrokes deep into the court. Even after the 23-year old Pole recovered in the second, Pegula’s power continued to shake her, and by the end of the evening, Swiatek had committed a colossal 41 unforced errors.
The 2022 US Open champion had not faced a break point in her last 3 matches, but the Pole could not find her first serve in the opener, serving at just 36% while tallying 19 unforced errors, 16 of which came from the baseline. Striking the ball with consistent depth, Pegula took control of the baseline, and broke Swiatek twice to seal a dominant first set.
Emphatic Win
Although Swiatek dipped her toes into the contest, holding to love for 4-1, and again for 5-2, Pegula, backed by the cheers of the Ashe faithful, held at 15 to close out a 37-minute set in which she claimed 29 of the 44 points played. It was uncharacteristically sloppy tennis from the Pole, who committed 19 unforced errors in the opener against just 3 winners.
The American jumped to an early lead after breaking for 2-1 in the second, but Swiatek battled back on serve. After finding the rhythm that was lacking in the first 30 minutes of the match, Swiatek broke Pegula for the first time, and held to level at 3-3, but the 7th game proved pivotal as, having put the set back in the balance, the Pole could not close out the game at 40-30.
The result was the longest and most hotly contested game of the match, and having taken the game to deuce, Pegula struck a clean forehand winner to earn break point, but Swiatek responded with a backhand gem of her own. Pegula, though, maintained her baseline pressure, and Swiatek was forced to save a 2nd break point with a gutsy 11-shot rally, punctuated by a tricky overhead winner, and earned a game point after out-duelling the American once again in a 15-shot rally.
Again, Pegula did not relent, striking a forehand winner to keep Swiatek at bay, and then breaking on back-to-back forehand errors from the Pole to move ahead, 4-3. With the cacophony growing to a deafening roar inside the biggest tennis stadium in the world, the tension crept into Pegula’s shoulders, and she could only muster a second serve at 65 miles per hour.
The hitch was only temporary, as, moments later, the 30-year-old American closed out the 6-2 6-4 upset over the World No 1, converting her 3rd match point, and raising her arms in triumph after an hour and 28 minutes to advance to the semi-finals without losing a set.
Breakthrough Achievement
“I’ve been so many freaking times [to the quarter-finals], and I just kept losing but to great players, to girls who have gone on to win the tournament,” she said on court. “I know everyone keeps asking me about it, but I was like, ‘I don’t know what else to do. I just need to get there again and win the match’, so, thank God, I was able to do it, and finally, finally, I can say semi-finalist.”
The wait for a break-through had dragged on so long that even Pegula questioned whether it would ever happen for her. The daughter of Buffalo Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula, she first cracked the Top 20 in 2021, and built a reputation as a player who couldn’t stay off the court, playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in a quest for a Grand Slam title of any kind, but, during the second week of majors, Pegula would fade as the competition got tougher.
On this occasion, though, Pegula was more effective in nearly every facet of the game. With the partisan crowd behind her, she won 77% of her first-serve points and 53% of her second-serve points, while making 81% of her returns. The American was broken just once in the match, and finished with 12 winners to 22 unforced errors.
Swiatek matched Pegula in the winner count, but tallied nearly twice as many unforced errors, finishing with 41, and, after going 3 consecutive matches without facing a break point, she was broken 4 times by Pegula.
“On the one hand, I was telling myself that I can still play well from the baseline,” Swiatek said afterwards. “And I’ve had many tournaments where I didn’t serve well, and I managed to win anyway. But I, probably, didn’t find the right solution, because I couldn’t push with my serve. Also, I wasn’t that solid from the baseline to have a back-up like that. You’re not going to win if you make so many mistakes, and I made those, and it’s on me.”
The long season has taken a toll on Swiatek’s body and mind, but she earned her fatigue by playing deep into all the clay tournaments she entered in the spring, winning 3 of them. Since then, the summer became a slog, with her only consolation coming in the form of a Bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, after losing her chance at Gold.
The Pole, though, says she does not want to take a break after the final major of the year. “It could be a little bit easier, but I’m keeping up with the schedule,” she added. “I’m only talking about mandatory tournaments, and there are rules about mandatory tournaments. But I’m ready for playing till November, I guess, unless I’m going to get injured.”
Also ready is Pegula, the World No 6, who will face unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova for a spot in the final. The Czech made it into…
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