Pegula upsets Swiatek at US Open to get over Grand Slam quarter-final hump

Jessica Pegula secured a spot in her first Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday night, and she did it in style.

Pegula upset world No 1 Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4, finally getting over the quarter-final hump on her seventh try. The 30-year-old needed only one hour and 28 minutes to advanced past a surprisingly error-prone Swiatek.

It is a long time coming for Pegula, who had previously lost major quarter-final matches once in 2021 (Australian Open), three times in 2022 (everywhere except Wimbledon) and twice in 2023 (Australian Open and Wimbledon). Her maiden semi-final match will come against Karolina Muchova on Thursday night.

“I’m really happy to be through to the semi-finals,” Pegula assured. “I thought I played a really clean match, served pretty well (and) returned well. I feel like I didn’t really do anything that bad and was able to kind of jump on her really early and I think frustrate her — and was able to keep my level even when she picked it up in the second set.

“Yeah, I think I just played all-around really good tennis today.”

Swiatek, on the other hand, did not. The five-time major champion — and former US Open winner — struck a whopping 29 more unforced errors than winners (41 to 12). She was broken four times, won only 56 percent of her first-serve points and won fewer than half of her second-serve points (47 percent).

“It wasn’t a good performance from myself,” Swiatek said matter of factly. “But Jessie used it, so she played better, I played worse and she won…. It’s never easy to play against Jess. She has a tricky ball because it’s pretty low and pretty flat.”

PEGULA VS MUCHOVA IN SEMI-FINALS

Pegula and Muchova have gone head-to-head on just one previous occasions, and it was a match that just came earlier this summer at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati. The American prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.

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