MELBOURNE, Australia – Jessica Pegula’s first victory over a Top 10 opponent earned the 25-year-old American her first trip to the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament.
61st ranked Pegula, whose parents own the NFL and NHL franchises in Buffalo, managed to win 5th place, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena on Monday (Sunday night EST).
Pegula is in an innovative race. She won four matches in Melbourne Park last week – including victories over Victoria Azarenka, twice Australian Open champion, and Sam Stosur, 2011 United States Open champion – after entering the hard court tournament with a total of three majors wins for his career.
Also significant for Pegula, who works with former Venus Williams coach David Witt: she came in 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), and zero fans in the stands for the third consecutive day due to a local blockade by COVID-19, Pegula dictated the exchange of ground hits along the baseline.
At first, she pushed Svitolina, twice the Grand Slam semi-finalist, who eliminated American teenager Coco Gauff in the second round, and went up for a set and a 1-0 break in the second.
Until then, Pegula had not been broken.
But that was when Svitolina, with everything slipping, took a stand. Suddenly, she broke Pegula twice in a row, part of a four-game streak that put Svitolina ahead 4-1 in the second, on the way to forcing a third set.
As if pressing a button or remembering what worked so well before, Pegula returned to her more aggressive style of corner hitting and led 4-1. She broke to 4-3, but broke back, then fulfilled the most important victory of her career by grabbing the last four points after falling behind love-30.
Pegula plays the winner of the ensuing match at Rod Laver Arena: No. 22 Jennifer Brady of the United States against No. 28 Donna Vekic of Croatia.
The last two women’s fights of the fourth round were No. 1 Ash Barty against American Shelby Rogers, and No. 18 Elise Mertens against Karolina Muchova.
The men’s matches scheduled on Monday included 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal against No. 16 Fabio Fognini, and No. 4, Daniil Medvedev, against American Mackenzie McDonald, 192nd.