Jessica Pegula is through to the Citi Open quarter-final as the American downed compatriot Peyton Stearns in two sets.
Pegula needs wins after her most recent performance at Wimbledon ended in disappointment. After an early exit at Roland Garros, the American got to a Wimbledon quarterfinal, in which she lost to the eventual champion Marketa Vondrosuova.
Now, the US Open is also coming up, so playing herself in great shape would be greatly beneficial for her chances at the event, as Pegula will be looking to delight the home fans with some deep run, and bring the fans in New York a Grand Slam title.
This was a step in the right direction. The opposition was solid, not a world-beating one but rather solid, as Peyton Stearns is one of the talented players. Pegula established control in the middle of the opening set, taking a break and then adding another one to win the opening set.
She was very good on return, winning a lot of rallies on the serve of Stearns while not allowing a single break point on her own serve. The second set opened with an early break though it was Stearns who broke the serve of Pegula this time.
Jess retaliated immediately, taking a 3-1 lead, but Stearns wasn't going to give up pulling it back to 3-3. Momentum was changing all the time, mostly because Stearns dominated on the second serve of Pegula. It gave her plenty of chances which she took.
Still, when it mattered most, Pegula was able to produce the needed level to win the match. It was 5-4 in the second set when she created match points and broke Stearns to close out the match. The final score was 6-3 6-4 for Pegula who will play against Elina Svitolina who defeated Daria Kasatkina.
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