MELBOURNE, Australia – Jessica Pegula’s first victory over a top 10 opponent brought the 25-year-old American her first trip to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.
Pegula, ranked 61st, whose parents own Buffalo’s NFL and NHL franchises, wanted to beat Elina Svitolina, from Ukraine, on Saturday, number 5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in Rod Laver Arena, Monday (Sunday evening EST).
The glue is in a fairly important period. She has won four matches at Melbourne Park in the past week – including victories over Australian Open double champion Victoria Azarenka and 2011 US Open champion Sam Stosur – after entering the heavyweight tournament with a total of three career major victories. to .
Also significant for Pegula, who works with former Venus Williams coach David Witt: He entered the day with a 0-6 record against the Top 10 Women.
With the blue sky and the temperature at 70 degrees Fahrenheit low (20 degrees Celsius low) and zero fans in the stands for the third day in a row due to a local blockage COVID-19, Pegula dictated ground shifts to along the baseline.
At first, she pushed the Grand Slam semifinalist twice, Svitolina, who eliminated American teenager Coco Gauff in the second round and went up with a set and a 1-0 break in the second.
Until then, Pegula had not been broken.
But there Svitolina, all slipping, made a position. She abruptly broke Pegula twice in a row, part of a four-game maneuver that put Svitolina 4-1 in the second, about to force a third set.
As if flipping a switch or remembering what worked so well earlier, Pegula returned to her more aggressive mark of the game hit the corners and led 4-1. She broke at 4-3, but broke immediately, then served the most important victory of her career by grabbing the last four points after falling behind Love-30.
Pegula plays the winner of the match that followed in Rod Laver Arena: Nr. 22 Jennifer Brady from United States vs. Nr. 28 Donna Vekic from Croatia.
The last two women’s matches in the fourth round were No. 1 Ash Barty vs. undeclared American Shelby Rogers and No. 18 Elise Mertens vs. Karolina Muchova.
The men’s matches in the program included on Monday, 20 times, Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal, against number 16, Fabio Fognini, and no. 4, Daniil Medvedev, against the American Mackenzie McDonald, ranked 192nd.