WHAT HAPPENED: On Wednesday night, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek won just her second match in Arthur Ashe Stadium to advance to her first US Open semifinal.
The 21-year-old from Poland knocked out No. 8 seed Jessica Pegula, the last American standing in the women’s singles draw, 6-3, 7-6(4). A gritty Pegula twice denied Swiatek from serving out the match, but the top seed did just enough in the tiebreak, firing three winners to escape in straights after one hour, 53 minutes.
The back-and-forth second set saw 10 breaks in its 12 games, with a combined 17 break points.
“She’s a great player,” Swiatek said of her opponent. “I was trying to push her back, but she’s really good at receiving so she put pressure on me. That’s why it ended up in a tiebreaker.”
In set one, Pegula, of Buffalo, N.Y., started stronger in front of her home fans as she moved Swiatek around the baseline, earning a break point in the opening game and then converting to break for 3-2 behind a rare net approach.
But she ceded her advantage with four unforced errors to drop serve from 30-0, sparking a Swiatek sprint. Keeping the pressure on with big swings from the backcourt, the Pole won 16 of the last 18 points to pocket the opening set, wrapping it up with a backhand winner.
Swiatek extended that streak to 21 of 24 points (and five straight games) as she broke serve to open set two, but found herself level at 1-1 after three straight miscues in the face of Pegula’s baseline blasts.
That was the first of four trades of breaks, with Swiatek edging ahead each time only for Pegula to fashion an instant response. The American fought hard to prevent another finishing flurry from her opponent, and held her own in the many marathon rallies that defined the second stanza. After an average rally length of 4.79 balls in set one–a fairly high number in itself—the average exchange in set two was 5.75 shots.
Pegula won the joint-longest rally of the match, 23 balls, with a drop shot in a tense 4-all, 30-all point, but then fell victim to an unlucky net cord at the end of a 20-shot exhange, Swiatek’s good fortune setting her up to serve for the match.
But three more breaks would follow before the tiebreak. Following the trend of the set, seven of 11 points went against serve in the breaker. This time, Swiatek did close it out on serve, winning rallies of 11 and nine balls to get to the finish line from 5-4.
“At the beginning of the tournament, of course you’re here to make the best result as possible, but I wasn’t expecting [to reach the semifinals],” Swiatek said. “I’m really happy that I’m working to keep my expectations low because today was such a tough match and I think that the level was great, so I’m really happy that I handled it.”
After winning six titles and running up a 37-match win streak from February to June, Swiatek is seeking her fourth hard-court title of the season,.
WHAT IT MEANS: Swiatek improves to 3-0 against Pegula this season (3-1 overall), and will hope to continue the pattern from her previous two wins in the head-to-head. After victories against the American in the Miami semifinals and the Roland Garros quarters, Swaitek went on to win both titles.
The two-time Roland Garros champ is the only remaining major titlist in the men’s or women’s singles draws. She will face Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals after the sixth seed’s 6-1, 7-6(4) dismissal of 2016 US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova earlier on Wednesday.
