WHAT HAPPENED: The last time Swiss Belinda Bencic and American Jessica Pegula faced off was at the Tokyo Olympics, where Bencic won the match—and went the distance, bringing home the gold for her singles win, as well as a silver medal for her women’s doubles play.
At their Tokyo meeting, Pegula, who is the No. 23 seed in New York, couldn’t find a way to break Bencic’s serve. And the Swiss star’s serve has continued to sizzle. Bencic won 17 out of 18 of her service games across her Round 1 and 2 matches.
That storyline held, with Bencic refusing, yet again, to drop a set. The Swiss miss took the match, 6-2, 6-4.
Seeded No. 11, Bencic walked into Louis Armstrong Stadium with a 60% likelihood of beating Pegula, per IBM’s Watson. But her American opponent has had a hot summer too, tennis-wise, especially during her first two matches here, neither of them lasting much longer than an hour.
Bencic started the match very much in command, grabbing a quick 4-1 lead in the first set. For her part, Pegula got just 33% of her first serves in and was broken three times. Bencic needed just 30 minutes to take the first set, 6-2.
In the second set, Bencic’s steady serving continued to be the biggest factor in her favor. Neither player approached the net more than five times, despite their prowess at the net. The winners count was almost even: 16-15. Pegula swung more freely and won more of the groundstrokes battles throughout the set—her best service game was her last one, staving off three match points. But Bencic handled the next game with ease, taking the set 6-4.
“I was a little bit worried before the match,” Bencic said on court afterwards, acknowledging her opponent’s hot streak. “I was really, really happy with the way I played.”
The gold-medalist credited her Olympic experience for her stellar play. “After a big win, you can just play freely,” she said. “Everything else is a bonus and fun.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Bencic’s best US Open showing was in 2019, when she advanced to a semifinal match against the player who would ultimately take the title, Bianca Andreescu. If both Bencic (whose initials are BB) and the Canadian, whose nickname is BiBi, win their Round of 16 matches, they’ll meet again. And if Bencic goes the distance this year, she’ll be the first Swiss woman to win the US Open women’s singles title since Martina Hingis in 1997.
MATCH POINT: The women may well collide in a Round 3 mixed-doubles match. Both Benic (with her partner Filip Polasek) and Pegula (with Austin Krajicek) won their Round 1 matches on Thursday.
