Jessica Pegula defeats No. 1 Iga Swiatek to reach US Open semifinals

NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula pulled off a major upset of Iga Swiatek at the US Open, beating the No. 1 seed 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday night to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time at the her seventh. try.

Her victory guarantees that the US Open will have more American men and women playing in the semifinal round for the first time since 2003 (Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick; Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati).

Swiatek served poorly in the first set and her forehand was a real problem, with 22 of her 41 unforced errors coming from that side. Pegula used great defense to force Swiatek into an extra shot.

Pegula, serial number no. 6, the 30-year-old American has won 14 of her last 15 matches and will make her Slam semifinal debut against Czech Karolina Muchova on Thursday.

Pegula has repeatedly done what has seemed almost impossible of late against Swiatek, who counts the 2022 US Open among her five Grand Slam titles and has led the WTA rankings for most of the past 2 1/2 years: break her serve .

Entering Wednesday, Swiatek had lost just a pair of service games in four hard-court tournament matches, both in the first round — and had not faced a single break point in any of his most recent three contests.

But Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, didn’t have much trouble in that department, especially early on, breaking each of Swiatek’s first two service games, which ended both with double faults and triples. of the first six.

It helped that Swiatek couldn’t get his first serves right early, hitting just 2-of-12 — 16.7 percent — in the early going, just 36 percent for the opening set.

Pegula entered the day as the only WTA top 10 player not to reach a major semifinal; she was 0–6 in her career in Slam quarterfinals, one loss from the worst major quarterfinal record of any woman in the Open era, shared by three players (0–7).

During that 0-6 stretch, two of the outings came against Swiatek, and one came against another No. 1 hitter, Ash Barty.

Pegula was asked about that record this round during her post-match interview on the court after winning her fourth-round match. And again in the press conference that followed. And again during a TV interview before walking out on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday.

If that bothered her, Pegula didn’t let it show. Just as she showed no discernible emotion after going 4-0 up just 21 minutes into the quarters. Even as Pegula grabbed that set, there was only a slight shake of her left fist as she made her way to her seat on the sidelines.

Swiatek didn’t hide his frustration so well, including a big right thigh slap after a forehand flew wide to break again and stay 4-3 in the second set. Fifteen minutes later, it was over.

Before Pegula, the last American to beat the world No. 1 at any major was Shelby Rogers, who knocked out Barty in the third round of the 2021 US Open.

Entering Wednesday, Swiatek held a 6-3 advantage in her head-to-head matches with Pegula. Their last meeting was at the WTA Finals in Cancún, where Swiatek defeated Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the most lopsided championship match in the history of the year-end event.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.