The last American woman is out of the U.S. Open.
And it took the world’s top-ranked player to end Jessica Pegula’s run in Flushing Meadows, a 6-3, 7-6 (4) quarterfinal win by Iga Swiatek in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday.
The eighth-ranked Pegula is the highest-ranked U.S. player — male or female — and Buffalo’s latest hope of breaking it’s long-standing sports curse. The Bills are 0-4 in Super Bowls, the Sabres 0-2 in Stanley Cup finals. With Pegula’s father Terry owning both clubs, she seemed the perfect person to snap the city’s title drought.
Instead, Swiatek snapped her U.S. Open march a step away from the semifinals. And for the third time in her career year, Pegula reached the quarterfinal of a major, only to go no further.
“I go back and forth. I’m like, ‘Oh, I should be positive.’ But at the same time, I’m like, f–k, three quarterfinals? Sorry, but it just sucks,” Pegula said. “It sucks and I wish I could’ve done it here at my home Slam, but I guess not.
“I feel a little deflated right now. I’m not really happy. It just sucks to lose. I just wish it would’ve been different. But I’m sure I’ll wake up and see more positives.”
This match was neither crisp nor high quality. There were 13 breaks, including 10 in a dogfight second set alone. It was such an epidemic it was more accurate to say they were on break than on serve.
Pegula raised her game after a collapse cost her the first set, but it wasn’t enough. Not against Swiatek, who had reeled off 37 straight wins earlier in the year and has now notched eight consecutive victories over top-10 foes in straight sets.
“I’m pretty proud of it because I feel like I’m playing better and better every match,” Swiatek said. “Jessie was a tough opponent, for sure. Second set was really tight. We both were fighting ’til the last point. I’m proud of myself that I could be the one to win the last one.”
Swiatek will face sixth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the semis.
While Pegula has been admirably consistent, her conservative game doesn’t match up well against the Pole, lacking that one killer weapon she can count on.
Pegula had the first break to go up 3-2 in the first set, and led 30-love. But after Swiatek switched rackets, Pegula missed a volley and lost her momentum, dropping 16 of the last 18 points to lose the set 6-3.
“I realized I need extra help from the racquet and the string itself,” Swiatek said.
“I missed that swing volley, which, who knows if I would’ve won that game maybe it would’ve been a different set,” Pegula said. “She switched rackets and it helped. Her ball wasn’t flying as much. I was used to her making errors.
“Then I started missing everything for literally the rest of the set. … I broke her, then just totally lost like every single ball. It was definitely a huge momentum change.”
The momentum went back and forth in a second set, Swiatek arguing with the chair ump after being hit with a time violation in the fifth game, and Pegula getting a warning for hitting the ball into the stands in frustration after a break for 4-3.
Swiatek had been good, then got lucky with a net-cord winner to go up 5-4. And when Pegula hit her backhand wide after a rally, the Pole tossed away her racket and let out a victorious shriek. Meanwhile, Pegula’s loss left Frances Tiafoe as the last American star still in Flushing.
“He’s the last American standing. So proud of him,” Pegula said. “The way he’s taking care of business has been really impressive. He’s super hyped up and ecstatic; such a good story on him. I just wish I could join him or Coco [Gauff] could join him. It’s been fun to have that feeling of everyone behind us as Americans in the second week of the U.S. Open. It’s been really special.”
Credit: Source link
