Round 3: Jessica Pegula vs. Elina Svitolina
Arthur Ashe Stadium — Day Session — Second Match
- Two players with a Top 10 pedigree are set to face off for a spot in the fourth round. No. 3 seed Pegula, the U.S.'s top-ranked player, and No. 26 seed Svitolina—herself a former world No. 3—will be meeting for the fifth time. Since they first met two years ago, Pegula leads their overall head-to-head, 3-1, which includes a hard-fought win earlier this summer in Washington, D.C. In that match, Pegula came from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Two of Pegula's wins against Svitolina have come in three sets; she also won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in Round 3 of the 2021 Australian Open, and all five of their matches have been played on hard courts.
- Pegula and Svitolina have had contrasting paths through the first two rounds. The American has dropped eight games in four sets played against Camila Giorgi and Patricia Maria Tig, while Svitolina was pushed hard in one of her matches. After an uncomplicated 6-3, 6-1 win over Anna-Lena Friedsam in Round 1, Svitolina had to come from a set down to beat former Roland Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Round 2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
- Pegula has logged 2 hours and 33 minutes on court in her two matches played; Svitolina's win over Pavlyuchenkova was, in itself, 2 hours and 47 minutes.
- A win will put Pegula into the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the seventh time, and third this year, as she hopes to stay the course for her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal berth. Svitolina, who returned to the tour this April after the October birth of her and Gael Monfils' daughter Skaï, is in search of her 12th win in three majors played this year after reaching the quarterfinals in Paris and the semifinals at Wimbledon.
- While Svitolina is a former world No. 3, and comes into this tournament near her pre-maternity leave form, she's currently ranked outside the Top 20. This year, Pegula is 36-6 against players ranked outside the Top 20. Svitolina, coincidentally, boasts 36 career wins over Top 10 players, most recently world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
