Lucky number seven.
On Wednesday at the 2024 US Open, on her seventh attempt, world No. 6 and Buffalo, N.Y., native Jessica Pegula finally did what she has often said she needed to do to reach the semis of a Grand Slam: She won a quarterfinal match.
“I’ve been [to the quarterfinals] so many freaking times,” Pegula noted after defeating world No. 1 Iga Swiatek to end the streak of six straight losses at that stage of the majors. “I just kept losing. But I mean, to great players, to girls that went on to win the tournament. I know everybody kept asking me about it, but I was like, 'I don’t know what else to do, I just need to get there again and win the match.' So thank god I was able to do it, and finally, finally, I can say semifinalist.”
Swiatek was far from the ideal opponent for this seventh opportunity. The world No. 1 had beaten Pegula twice before at the same stage in a Grand Slam and once on the very same court where they’d face off—inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. The last time the two met, at the WTA Finals in Cancun in November 2023, Pegula claimed just a single game. But, as fellow American Frances Tiafoe says, there are no free lunches in tennis.
And from the very beginning of the match, Jessica Pegula was hungry. In the first set especially, she played at the peak of her powers. She hit the ball with weight and depth, stepped in to crack returns and refused to cower to the magnitude of the moment or this oft-lopsided matchup. She was fearless. She even earned an early break in the second.
But Grand Slam champions are Grand Slam champions for a reason. Swiatek broke back on a forehand that just barely clipped the line. The reigning Roland Garros Champion (for the last three years and counting) started to raise her level and compete like the kind of player who could come back and win in three. Pegula was ready for it.
“She's No. 1 in the world,” Pegula said in her post-match press conference. “She's not just going to go away… When she starts to zone in on that, I feel she's probably one of the best front-runners in closing those windows of opportunity. She's probably one of the best, I think, that does that really well.”
Pegula could tell Swiatek was gaining steam, even though the American was staying close in the scoreline by winning some defensive points: “I still felt I needed to keep pressuring her and doing what I was doing in the beginning to frustrate her and not let her get into that rhythm,” she said.
With Swiatek serving at 3-3, Pegula hunkered down. She traded blows, she went for her shots and most importantly, she upset her opponent’s rhythm. She got the break. It was all she needed to earn her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal berth.
Of course, it is one thing to know what you have to do—and another thing entirely to execute that game plan. She credited her two new coaches—Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein, whom she hired in February—for helping her to prepare for the moment. One of the things they’ve prioritized that definitely factored into Wednesday night’s result: Movement.
“That's something I've been working on the last couple of months with the new coaches that I've hired,” she said. “It sounds weird, but it's not something I've really focused on that much throughout my career, just getting faster and stronger… getting in and out of the corners faster, and being able to hit better shots from the corners instead of getting behind in the point.”
The work has paid off. Before defeating Swiatek, Pegula arguably enjoyed the best summer hard-court season of all players on the women's tour. She successfully defended her title at the WTA 1000 in Canada and reached the final at the 1000-level event a week later in Cincinnati. Along the way she defeated 2022 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, fast-rising teenager Diana Shnaider and even her next opponent, Karolina Muchova. These results are why, when she stepped to the line on Wednesday night to serve for her first-ever semifinal, she didn’t entirely feel the burden of six missed opportunities—or the pressure of facing a player she’d never beaten in a major before.
“There's always going to be nerves closing out a match, for sure,” Pegula said. “But, I mean, I've had some really good wins the last couple of weeks and have been playing some really good tennis. So at the same time, I still was pretty relaxed and felt like I was going to be able to get the job done.”
