Familiar foes battled in Wednesday evening’s women’s quarterfinal match.
No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek and No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula were facing each other for the tenth time in their careers.
In stunning fashion, Pegula was able to defeat the top-ranked player in the world 6-2, 6-4 to advance to her first career major semifinal.
“Finally, finally I can say semifinalist,” Pegula said with her arms raised after the match. “To do it primetime, Ashe, against the No. 1 player in the world, I mean, it’s crazy but I knew I could do it. I just had to go out and execute my game and not get frustrated.
“Luckily, I felt like I was able to take advantage of some things she wasn’t doing well very early and then was able to kind of ride that momentum through the rest of the match.”
Coming into the match, Swiatek was rolling. She hadn’t needed a third set yet in her four singles matches in the tournament, and had only lost four games in a set on three occasions (two of those were in the first round). She had not faced a breakpoint in three consecutive matches and only four breakpoints in her entire tournament.
Pegula also hadn’t needed a third set to reach the quarters and had lost as many as four games in a set only three times as well.
The two faced each other in the U.S. Open once previously, with Swiatek winning in two sets in 2022. She won the tournament that year, one of her five major titles to date.
Pegula, the daughter of the owners of the Buffalo Sabres (NHL) and Buffalo Bills (NFL), had lost the previous six meetings against Swiatek. But this match could not have started better. Pegula broke Swiatek’s serve in the first game of the night, and then broke her serve in the third game of the set as well.
Pegula won the first set 6-2 and was clearly the more comfortable, aggressive player. Swiatek made only 36 percent of her first serves in the first set and double faulted twice. Pegula, on the other hand, made 64 percent of her first serves and did not double fault in a stunningly dominant opening set that lasted only 37 minutes and included 19 unforced errors from Swiatek.
Swiatek retired to the locker room between sets to collect herself for a few minutes. After winning her service game with ease to open the second set, Swiatek looked uncomfortable again from the baseline in the second game. Her groundstroke struggles continued in her second service game of the set, missing a number of forehands wide. Pegula broke her for a third time and the frustration was visible from the world’s No. 1 player.
After switching sides of the court, Swiatekbroke Pegula for the first time and hoped to find some momentum. But Pegula broke Swiatek’s serve in the seventh game of the set to take a 4-3 lead and have the match within her reach. As the players switched ends of the court, Swiatek slammed her racquet into the net in frustration.
Pegula had the crowd behind her serving for the match and unforced errors continued to haunt Swiatek. Pegula had three match points and needed all three. But she was able to dispatch her rival and move on to her first U.S. Open semifinal.
