US Open: Jessica Pegula is on a roll

Boca Raton-based Jessica Pegula is making her way into the quarterfinals for the second time in three years. The sixth seed is on a roll: winning 13 of her last 14 matches. Her only loss during over that period of time was from Aryna Sabalenka, recently, in the Cincinnati Open final.

And yesterday, she notched a convincing 6-4, 6-2 win over Diana Shnaider in front of huge crowds at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Can she continue her impressive run in Flushing Meadows?

“I feel like there’s been more pressure this year because I did so well coming into this tournament,” said Pegula. At the US Open this year, she has yet to drop a single set through all four rounds thus far.

Photo credit: US Open Tennis Championships.

“I feel like [this match] might be the best off the ground that I’ve felt. I want to keep working my way and, hopefully, bring my best tennis for the later rounds,” she explained after the win.

Prior to the US Open, Pegula successfully defended her WTA 1000 title she won in 2023 in Canada and later reached the final in Cincinnati. 

Fellow Boca Raton-based player, Frances Tiafoe, is now working with Davit Witt — Pegula's former coach.

In turn, she recently hired Mark Knowles, former world No. 1 doubles player (who coached Floridian Mardy Fish), and, former University of Florida coach Mark Merklein as her new coaching duo. And soon after the new hires, at a tournament in Berlin, Pegula lifted her first-ever grass-court championship trophy.

Photo credit: US Open Tennis Championships.

Momentum is swinging in Pegula's favor right now but a tough road lies ahead. Pegula will take on world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in order to get through to her first US Open semifinal. And it happened to be the Polish superstar who defeated her in the US Open quarters two years ago.

Even worse, her record stands at 0-7 in the quarterfinals. According to Pegula, "It doesn’t really matter to me: Every match is another match. I’ve always played it like that. It just so happens to be a quarterfinal."

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Written by Florida Tennis Editor and Publisher Matt Pressman. Top photo by robbiesaurus from Smithtown, NY, USA - A look back at Jessica Pegula at the 2015 US Open - CC BY-SA 2.0.