NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula pulled off a major upset over Iga Swiatek at the U.S. Open, beating the world No. 1 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday night to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time in her seventh attempt.
“There were so many horrible moments, and I kept losing,” Pegula told the crowd. “I know everyone asks me about it, but I was like, ‘I don’t know what else to do. I just have to get there again and, like, win the game.’ So, thank God I was able to do that. And finally — finally! — I can say, ‘Semifinalist.’”
His victory ensures that the US Open will have several Americans in the semi-finals, a first since 2003 (Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick; Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati).
Pegula, the No. 6 seed and 30-year-old American, has won 14 of her last 15 matches and will make her first appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal on Thursday against unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
Muchova and Pegula have yet to drop a set, the first time multiple women have achieved this at this stage of the tournament since 2014 (there were three that year: Serena Williams, Peng Shuai and Ekaterina Makarova).
“I know she has a lot of Grand Slam experience,” Pegula said of Muchova, whom she beat at the Cincinnati Open last month. “I might worry about that when I wake up tomorrow morning.”
Thursday’s other women’s match also features an American making her major semifinal debut, No. 13 Emma Navarro, against No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who has won the last two Australian Open titles. Sabalenka lost to Coco Gauff in the 2023 final in New York; Navarro ended Gauff’s title defense in the fourth round.
There are also two Americans in the men’s semifinals, but they will face each other: No. 12 Taylor Fritz will face No. 20 Frances Tiafoe on Friday.
The lopsided nature of Pegula’s victory was surprising, but she believed this day would come.
“I knew I could do it. I just had to play my game and not let it get to me,” she said. “Luckily, I felt like I was able to take advantage of some of the things she wasn’t doing well early on and then I was able to take that momentum throughout the match.”
Swiatek served poorly in the first set and her forehand was a real problem, with 22 of her 41 unforced errors coming from that side. Pegula committed only 22 unforced errors in total and used some formidable defense to force Swiatek to hit an extra shot.
Pegula has repeatedly done what has seemed almost impossible of late against Swiatek, who counts the 2022 US Open among her five Grand Slam titles and has led the WTA rankings for most of the past two and a half years: break her serve.
Before Wednesday, Swiatek had lost just two service games in four matches at the tournament, both in the first round – and she hasn’t faced a single break point in any of her last three matches.
But Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, didn’t have much trouble in that department, especially early on, breaking each of Swiatek’s first two service games, both of which ended in double faults, and three of the first six.
Fortunately, Swiatek was unable to properly calibrate her first serves early on, putting just 2 of her 12 serves – 16.7% – into play early on and just 36% for the first set.
Even as the games continued to swing in her favor, Pegula didn’t show much discernible emotion, whether it was taking a 4-0 lead just 21 minutes in or winning that set, which was met with a slight movement of her left fist as she headed to her side seat.
Swiatek didn’t hide her thoughts well. She slammed her racket against the top of the net. She slapped her right thigh after a forehand that went wide to get broken again and find herself trailing 4-3 in the second set. Fifteen minutes later, it was over.
“It’s never easy to play against Jess,” Swiatek said. “She has a difficult ball because she’s quite low and quite flat. I just made too many mistakes.”
Pegula entered the day as the only player in the WTA top 10 who had never reached a major semifinal; 0-6 in her career in Grand Slam quarterfinals, she was one loss away from the worst major quarterfinal record of any woman in the Open era, shared by three players (0-7).
During that 0-6 stretch, two of her outings came against Swiatek, and one against another No. 1 player, Ash Barty.
Pegula was asked about the record during her on-court post-match interview after winning her fourth-round match. And again during the press conference that followed. And again during a televised interview before she walked out at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday.
If all this was weighing on Pegula, she didn’t let it show.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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