Jessica Pegula is on the brink of her first major semifinal at the US Open

NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula’s US Open run began in tears.

Tasked with taking part in her longtime buddy Shelby Rogers within the first spherical, Pegula knew it might be emotional it doesn’t matter what occurred. Rogers had introduced that the match could be her closing one earlier than retiring, and after Pegula had secured the straight-sets win, the burden of the second appeared to hit.

“We grew up taking part in juniors collectively, grew up in the identical part, and it is actually loopy,” Pegula, the No. 6 seed, mentioned on the court docket at Arthur Ashe Stadium as she cried.

Pegula had beforehand advised reporters that she merely could not consider a few of her friends have been ending their careers. And, contemplating the success Pegula has had lately, it is sensible why she would suppose that. Whereas tennis is crammed with teenage prodigies and younger 20-somethings rising as superstars, Pegula did not advance to her first main quarterfinals till she was 26. She was 27 when she cracked the highest 20 for the primary time.

And now, at 30, Pegula is getting ready to her first Slam semifinal. Retirement is the very last thing on her thoughts. On Monday, with the help of the rowdy vacation crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Pegula defeated No. 18 seed Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-2. After advancing to the seventh main quarterfinal of her profession, Pegula is hoping this would be the match through which she will take it one step additional, or extra.

“Effectively, I at all times say I simply have to win a match to get to the semis after which that’ll resolve all the things, proper?” Pegula mentioned throughout her on-court interview Monday when requested about what it might take to advance. “However I imply, it does not actually matter to me. I imply, each match is each match. I’ve at all times performed it like that. It simply so occurs to be quarterfinals. “However on the identical time, to have the ability to say I have been in that place many, many occasions is nice. So I simply should preserve placing myself there and preserve making an attempt to play my recreation. And it is one level at a time whenever you’re on the market.”

In fact, attending to Thursday’s semifinal will not be simple.

Pegula first should get by way of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the winner of 5 main titles, together with the 2022 US Open, on Wednesday. The 2 have met 9 occasions on tour, with Swiatek holding a 6-3 edge. However Pegula beat Swiatek within the 2023 Canadian Open semifinals — a match Pegula went on to win — so she is aware of it is potential. Daunting, however potential.

However that is nothing new for Pegula, who overcame a debilitating knee harm early in her profession after which underwent hip surgical procedure in 2016. She was sidelined from competitors for practically a 12 months and questioned if she needed to proceed. Her love for the game finally received over and she or he determined to maintain grinding.

When she returned to competitors, her rating was exterior of the highest 800. However she made her first WTA closing in 2018 and received her first title on the Citi Open in 2019. None of that stunned Rogers, who has at all times identified how good Pegula may very well be when taking part in her greatest.

“Gosh, I simply bear in mind she at all times had some very easy, pure energy, which is not any totally different now,” Rogers advised ESPN this week. “And he or she’s so relaxed when she’s on the court docket. I really feel tennis comes, I do not need to say pretty simple, however she makes it look simple, and that is at all times been the case.”

In 2021, Pegula reached her debut main quarterfinal on the Australian Open. And since then, she has change into a constant presence within the second week of Slams. Following a quarterfinal run on the 2022 French Open, she cracked the highest 10 for the primary time, and by no means left. With a profession excessive of No. 3, first achieved in 2022, Pegula is ranked No. 6 and will rise as excessive as No. 3 in New York. It doesn’t matter what occurs from right here on out, she would be the top-ranked American lady within the subsequent rankings as a result of Coco Gauff, the defending champion, was defeated Sunday within the fourth spherical.

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However, regardless of her excessive rating, Pegula hasn’t fared as effectively at majors this 12 months as she has in current seasons. She was upset within the second spherical at each the Australian Open and Wimbledon — tournaments through which she had reached the quarters in 2023 — and was unable to play on the French Open, or any of the clay season, as a consequence of an undisclosed harm.

However which may have been a blessing in disguise.

Whereas a number of of her friends, together with Swiatek, have complained concerning the calls for of the grueling schedule, and others, corresponding to Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, have cited the addition of the Olympics and the a number of floor adjustments as a part of the rationale for his or her early exits, Pegula mentioned her harm absence has allowed her to be “extra contemporary” at this stage within the 12 months.

“Once I began on grass, I [had] had a few months off,” Pegula mentioned Saturday. “Additionally, I did not go to the Center East [in February due to a neck injury]. I feel in a bizarre method, it was virtually a superb factor trying again that I have been in a position to form of begin that a part of the 12 months fairly contemporary. Although it was lots going backwards and forwards with the Olympics and the floor adjustments and all that.”

For the reason that conclusion of the Olympics — her second look with Group USA — Pegula received the title on the Canadian Open and reached the ultimate at Cincinnati. Few arrived in New York with extra momentum.

And he or she’s lived as much as the pre-tournament hype. Two days after her win over Rogers, Pegula confronted one other American in Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion. Kenin had recorded a formidable victory over 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu within the opening spherical, however was merely no match for Pegula. With the 7-6(4), 6-3 win, Pegula continued her undefeated streak (11-0) towards People in 2024. Within the third spherical, she breezed previous Jessica Bouzas, 6-3, 6-3.

Throughout Monday’s match towards Shnaider, a rising 20-year-old star who has received three titles this season, Pegula wanted simply 87 minutes to safe the victory. Pegula has but to drop a set all match.

She’s now received 13 of her previous 14 matches and, together with Emma Navarro, is considered one of two American ladies to achieve the quarterfinals. If Pegula have been to defeat Swiatek, she would change into the oldest American lady to make her first main semifinal. If she have been to lose, she would tie the file for many Slam quarterfinal appearances with out reaching the semifinals by a lady within the Open period. Evidently, there’s lots on the road.

However for Pegula, it doesn’t matter what occurs, it will not change her purpose to win a serious title. Whereas a few of her direct friends retire, she’s extra targeted than ever.

“It will be frickin’ superior if I received a Grand Slam,” Pegula mentioned earlier than the match began. “I positively enable myself to dream, I at all times have since I used to be a child. So I feel you must take your self to these moments … I’d love to have the ability to say that I achieved that, that is at all times my purpose going right into a Grand Slam.”