Pegula topples No.1 Swiatek at US Open to make first Slam semifinal (2024)

2024 US Open • 11hrsago

NEW YORK -- World No.6 Jessica Pegula advanced to her first major semifinal after ousting No.1 Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 at the US Open on Wednesday night.

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Pegula ended her much-publicized drought in Grand Slam quarterfinals, where she was previously 0-6. She joins Emma Navarro to put two Americans in the US Open semifinals for the second consecutive year.

"I would like to say I'm so happy that you guys cannot ask me about making it to the semis," Pegula said at the start of her press conference. "It wasn't even a me thing. It was more people asking me. I'm really happy to be through to the semifinals.

The victory is Pegula's fourth career win over Swiatek and first since the 2023 Omnium Banque Nationale. She joins Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and Barbora Krejcikova as the only players to notch four wins over the Pole.

"I thought I played a really clean match, served pretty well, returned well," Pegula said. "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."

Pegula will face last year's semifinalist Karolina Muchova for a spot in her first major final. Muchova returned to the semifinals after defeating Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-1, 6-4 earlier in the day.

Tale of the tape: Pegula, the 30-year-old Buffalo native, has now won 14 of her past 15 matches after winning her second title of the season last month at the National Bank Open in Toronto and finishing as runner-up at the Cincinnati Open. It has been a remarkable summer surge for Pegula, who was forced to skip four WTA 1000s in the first half of the year as well as the French Open with an injury.

In their first meeting of the season and first since the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun, Pegula dominated the opening set from the first game. Neither woman had yet to lose a set in New York, but in their 10th career meeting it was the American who came out sharper.

"I think today I wanted to come out playing the way I wanted to play," Pegula said. "I had an idea in my mind of what I learned from the last time I played her at Finals and play kind of within myself and then just see where she was at.

"I could tell right away she was frustrated on the serve."

How the match was won: Swiatek had not faced a break point in her last three matches, but the 23-year-old could not find her first serve in the opening set. She served at just 36 percent in the opening set while tallying 19 unforced errors, 16 of which came from the baseline. Striking the ball with consistent depth, Pegula took control of the baseline and broke Swiatek twice to seal a dominant first set.

Pegula jumped to an early lead after breaking to 2-1 in the second set, but Swiatek battled back on serve. After finding the rhythm that was lacking in the first 30 minutes of the match, Swiatek broke Pegula for the first time in the match and held to level the set at 3-3.

Turning point: The seventh game of the second set proved pivotal. Having put the set back in the balance, Swiatek could not close out the game at 40-30. The result was the longest and most hotly contested game of the match. After taking the game to deuce, Pegula struck a clean forehand winner to earn break point, but Swiatek responded with a backhand gem of her own.

But Pegula maintained her baseline pressure. Swiatek was forced to save a second break point with a gutsy 11-shot rally punctuated by a tricky overhead winner and earned a game point after outdueling Pegula once again in a 15-shot rally. Again, Pegula did not relent. She struck a forehand winner to keep Swiatek in the game and then broke on back-to-back forehand errors from Swiatek to move ahead 4-3.

Pegula calmly consolidated the break to lead 5-3 and closed out the win two games later to advance to the semifinals without losing a set.

Final stats: Pegula was more effective in nearly every facet of the game on Wednesday night. With the partisan crowd behind her, she won 77 percent of her first-serve points and 53 percent of her second-serve points while making 81 percent of her returns. She was broken just once in the match and finished with 12 winners to 22 unforced errors.

Swiatek matched Pegula in the winner count but tallied nearly twice as many unforced errors, finishing with 41. After going three consecutive matches without facing a break point, she was broken four times by Pegula.

Swiatek's reaction: After acknowledging her poor day at the service line, Swiatek said she was frustrated she could not find any solutions to get her game back online.

"On the one hand, I was telling myself that I can still play well from the baseline," she said. "And I've had many tournaments where I didn't serve well and I managed to win anyway.

"But I probably didn't find the right solution because I couldn't push with my serve. Also, I wasn't that solid from the baseline to have a backup like that. You're not going to win if you make so many mistakes, and I made those and it's on me."

Next up: Pegula won her only meeting against Muchova, who is playing in her fourth major semifinal and bidding to make her second major final. That match took place just weeks ago in Cincinnati, where Pegula won 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.