“She has a new perspective”: Top seed Pegula wary of Svitolina threat at Citi Open

Friday at the Mubadala DC Citi Open has tennis fans licking their lips in anticipation, as a battle royale between Jessica Pegula and Elina Svitolina is set to go down in the women’s quarter-finals.

Top seed Pegula has played just the one match so far this tournament, having received a bye into the round of 16 and comfortably dispatching compatriot Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday afternoon. Svitolina, on the other hand, has already taken down a former world No 1 and a big seed this week, defeating Victoria Azarenka and Daria Kasatkina in straight sets.

Despite Pegula being 24 spots higher than Svitolina in the rankings, the American is certainly wary of playing an opponent riding a wave of momentum and looking like a player completely reinvented.

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“It’s gonna be a different match”: Pegula aware of Svitolina challenge

Speaking to the media after her round of 16 win over Stearns, questions were quick to turn to Pegula’s upcoming match against Svitolina.

The two have not met on the WTA Tour in over two years, since Svitolina took maternity leave and gave birth to her daughter. That meeting, however, was resoundingly in favour of Pegula, with the score line reading 6-1, 6-1 to the American.

This time, Pegula doesn’t believe it will be quite so straight forward.

“It’s gonna be a different match probably than the previous times I have played her,” said Pegula.

“I can just tell from watching her matches, yeah, I feel like she has a new perspective. So many things going on in her life.”

Top seed speaks highly of Svitolina’s comeback

The world No 3 went on to applaud Svitolina, acknowledging how well her game has been progressing the past two months:

“She’s kind of come back and reset really nicely. She’s been competing really, really well and playing, like, very fearless. It’s definitely going to be, I think, different.

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“It’s going to be a tough match. She’s been playing at a high level, and I feel like she hasn’t really missed a beat much coming back.”

Pegula leads Svitolina 2-1 in their current head-to-head, having won their last two encounters.

Resurgent Svitolina continues to ride momentum

Since returning from maternity leave, Elina Svitolina has made a remarkable comeback on the WTA Tour.

Playing her first match in April 2023, the Ukrainian went 4-6 across her first six weeks back. However, since then, the 28-year-old has amassed a record of 16-3, winning a WTA 250 in Strasbourg as well as making the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros and semi-finals of Wimbledon.

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Along the way, Svitolina has taken down some big names with her aggressive brand of no-fear tennis, beating world No 1 Iga Swiatek in a three-set epic at Wimbledon, and defeating Daria Kasatkina and Victoria Azarenka twice each.

Should Svitolina manage to overcome Pegula on Friday, her path won’t get much easier in Washington—the winner of this match will likely play No 4 seed Maria Sakkari or No 7 seed Madison Keys.

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