MELBOURNE, Australia: Jessica Pegula’s first win over a top-10 opponent earned the 26-year-old American her first trip to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.
61st-placed Pegula, whose parents own the NFL and NHL franchises in Buffalo, held Ukrainian winner Elina Svitolina, No. 6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Monday (Sunday night EST). at the Rod Laver Arena.
Pegula is making great strides. He has won four games at Melbourne Park last week, including victories against Australian Open two-time champion Victoria Azarenka and 2011 American Open champion Sam Stosur after entering the track tournament it lasts with a total of three victories to majors by its race.
Also significant for Pegula, who works with former Venus Williams coach David Witt: she came up with a 0-6 record against the top 10 women.
With the blue sky and the low temperature of 70 Fahrenheit (minimum 20 degrees Celsius) and zero fans in the stands for the third day in a row due to a local blockade of COVID-19, Pegula dictated the changes of blow of land from the right along the baseline.
In the beginning, he pushed Grand Slam semifinalist Svitolina twice, who eliminated American teenager Coco Gauff in the second round, and increased by a set and a 1-0 break in the second.
Until then, Pegula had not broken.
But this is where Svitolina, while moving away, positioned herself. Suddenly, he broke Pegula twice in a row, part of a four-game run that put Svitolina ahead 4-1 on the second road when forcing a third set.
As if turning a switch or remembering what worked so well before, Pegula returned to his most aggressive mark of play in the corners and led 4-1. He broke with the 4-3, but broke right away and got the most important victory of his career by grabbing the last four points after falling behind love-30.
Pegula plays the winner of the match that followed at Rod Laver Arena: No. 22 Jennifer Brady of the United States against No. 28 Donna Vekic of Croatia.
The last two women’s fourth-round matches were No. 1 Ash Barty vs. American Shelby Rogers, and No. 18 Elise Mertens vs. Karolina Muchova.