Pegula gets best win of 2024, makes third Miami quarter-final in a row

No 5 seed Jessica Pegula advanced to the quarter-finals of the Miami Open by defeating No 20 seed Emma Navarro 7-6 (1), 6-3 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night.

The win is Pegula’s best victory of the year, with the world No 5 having struggled for momentum so far this season. She now becomes the first player to make three consecutive Miami Open quarter-finals since Karolina Pliskova in 2019, and first American woman since Serena Williams in 2015.

Throughout the match, Pegula played with great depth and consistency to see off one of the form players of the last few months in Navarro.

Next up, Pegula will play the winner of the match between Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed, and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 14 seed.

Ahead of her victory, Jessica Pegula benefited from the abandonment of Chinese Lin Zhu (6-4, 4-1) and won against Canadian Leylah Fernandez, the No 31 seed (7-5, 6-4).

Navarro, ranked No 20, beat Australian qualifier Storm Hunter (6-4, 6-3) and Italian Jasmine Paolini, the No 12 seed (6-2, 3-6, 6-0) earlier in the tournament.

Miami WTA 1000, other last 16 results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.770.480, most recent results first):

• Iga Swiatek vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova: tuesday
• Danielle Collins beat Sorana Cirstea (19): 6-3, 6-2
• Caroline Garcia (23) beat Coco Gauff (3): 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
• Victoria Azarenka (27) beat Katie Boulter (24): 7-5, 6-1
• Elena Rybakina (4) beat Madison Keys (17): 6-3, 7-5
• Yulia Putintseva beat Anhelina Kalinina (32): 6-4, 7-6 (5)
• Maria Sakkari vs. Anna Kalinskaya