Jessica Pegula into U.S. Open quarterfinals, eyes first major semifinal

Jessica Pegula reached her seventh Grand Slam quarterfinal. She hopes to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal. She must beat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek to do it.

Pegula, the sixth-seeded American, swept 18th-seeded Russian Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-2 in the U.S. Open fourth round on Monday. She hasn’t lost a set in four matches.

Neither has Swiatek. She swept No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova 6-4, 6-1 later Monday to set up a Wednesday quarterfinal between two of the top three seeds left in the women’s draw. Swiatek is 6-3 against Pegula.

“I could play super free, but then at the same time, she’s the No. 1 player in the world,” said Pegula, who at 30 can become the oldest U.S. woman to make her first Grand Slam semifinal.

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If Pegula does not win that next match, she will tie the female record for most Grand Slam quarterfinals without a semifinal in the professional era, according to ESPN.

The retired Kaia Kanepi, Carla Suarez Navarro and Katerina Maleeva all went 0-7 in Grand Slam quarterfinals. Manuela Maleeva lost her first 11 Grand Slam quarterfinals before making her first semi at the 1992 U.S. Open.

Pegula was swept by Swiatek in the quarterfinals of the French Open and U.S. Open in 2022, a year when the American reached a career-high ranking of third in the world.

This year, Pegula lost in the second round of the Australian Open in January, split with her coach of five years (David Witt) and missed chunks of the winter and spring due to injury.

“I was questioning whether I was OK to keep playing with injuries, with coaching changes, mentally, physically, all these things,” she said. “I was definitely unsure and kind of lost some confidence, but then at the same time, I think there was a point where I tend to just kind of snap out of it, and I don’t dwell on it too long.

“In the past, I have shown that every time that I got injured or I was out for a while or something happened, I was always able to bounce back really quickly and have faith and confidence in myself, mentally, especially, to go out there and still have good results and win matches.”

Pegula did that in August by winning a title and finishing runner-up in two U.S. Open lead-up tournaments.

Now she is guaranteed to become once again the highest-ranked American woman after the U.S. Open, passing Coco Gauff.

Pegula’s quarterfinal history at Grand Slams was a topic of her on-court interview after Monday’s win.

“I feel like there’s been more pressure this year because I did so well coming into this tournament,” she said. “I just need to win the match to get to the semis, and then that’ll solve everything, right?”