Jessica Pegula had high hopes of making the quarter-finals at the 2023 US Open, but she couldn't overcome Madison Keys.
It's an all too familiar story for Jessica Pegula, who finally won a big trophy back in Montreal but still struggles in the biggest moments at Grand Slams. She's now crashed out several times before making a substantial run, and it's always a huge disappointment.
You kind of expect her to make a good run after playing well, but things quickly fall apart against a player she should technically beat. Madison Keys is a good player, and she played a fabulous match, but Pegula is a far more consistent player.
Maybe that's the problem because while she is consistent, she does struggle to hit some of those amazing peaks players like Keys can. It happens once in a blue moon, but when it happens, it's good. Today was really good, the 6-1 opening set good, in fact.
It was a shellacking in the opening set, even though Pegula showed very little annoyance. She got there by the end of the set after Keys hit one more line. She hit plenty in the opening set, which saw her blast 13 winners in total. Keys had more winners than Pegula had, and even if you add the unforced errors of Jess, she's still four short of Keys' winner total.
The second set was a tiny bit better for Pegula, she held her serve for a while, and then she lost it. Keys gave it right back, but she kept applying pressure, and it was simply too overwhelming for the 3rd seed.
There were no mistakes the second time around as she held serve for the 5-3 lead. From there, it was a simple cruise towards the finish line, securing the quarter-final, winning 6-1, 6-3. 21 winners for Keys compared to only six by Pegula, who had 19 unforced errors on top of that.
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