NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula is back in the quarterfinals at the US Open after a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Diana Shnaider on Monday, her seventh trip to that round at a Grand Slam tournamentNow comes the tough part: Pegula has gone 0-6 in the quarterfinals of major tournaments in her career.
Sixth-seeded Pegula, an American whose parents own the NFL Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, is currently on a roll, having won 13 of her last 14 matches, all on hard courts. That included her second straight title in Canada and an appearance in the final at the Cincinnati Open, where she lost to No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
“I feel like there’s more pressure this year because I’ve done so well in this tournament,” said the 30-year-old Pegula, the oldest woman still in the field. “I want to keep doing my best and hopefully show my best tennis in the later rounds.”
The return to the quarter finals was also Karolina Muchovaa 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 5 Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon this season. Muchova will now play No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maiawho defeated 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to become the first woman from Brazil to reach the US Open quarterfinals since Maria Bueno in 1968.
Haddad Maia is a 28-year-old left-handed player who was given a 10-month ban after failing a doping test in 2019. She was a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last year, but had never made it past the second round at Flushing Meadows until now.
Muchova had her breakthrough in 2023 when she reached the final in Paris and the semi-final in New York. However, she had to undergo surgery on her right wrist in October, which sidelined her for ten months.
“This was my worst and most serious injury, I would say. But I mean, I love the sport, so in my head I was like, ‘I’ll do whatever I can to get (better) and try.’ And here I am today,” said Muchova, whose US Open a year ago ended with a loss to eventual champion Coco Gauff. “I’m just a really happy kid right now.”
Gauff was seeded third this year and was Sunday knocked out by No. 13 Emma Navarro.
In Monday’s men’s event, No. 25 Jack Draper became the first British man to reach the quarter-finals in New York since the recently retired Andy Murray did so in 2016. Draper, who crashed out in the fourth round last year, makes his first Grand Slam quarter-final appearance thanks to a 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 win over unseeded Tomas Machac.
“I miss Andy, obviously. Shoutout to Andy. What an incredible career that guy has had. Just an icon of the game. I miss him in the dressing rooms. I miss standing next to his stinking boots and all his stinking clothes,” said Draper, who will face No. 10 Alex de Minaur or Jordan Thompson, two Australians who play each other on Monday. “Andy is a legend, and if I have half his career, I’ll be a happy man.”
No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 champion and the only former men’s winner still in the group, defeated Nuno Borges 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 in a landslide victory six minutes delayed — along with every other match in progress at the time — due to a fire alarm in the building housing the electronic line-calling system. Medvedev’s quarterfinal opponent will be No. 1 Jannik Sinner or No. 14 Tommy Paul.
Pegula reached the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows two years ago before losing to No. 1 Iga Swiatekwho won one of her five major championships. Another meeting with Swiatek could come: Pegula will now face the winner of Monday night’s match between Swiatek and No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova.
Three of Pegula’s six quarterfinal exits at Grand Slams have been against No. 1 players: Swiatek twice and Ash Barty once.
“I’ll just try to draw from those experiences and how I felt going into the next game, but it’s just so tough,” Pegula said. “I mean, I know you don’t want the cliché answer, but it’s just one game at a time and every day feels different. It depends on who you’re playing, what the conditions are, when you’re playing. There’s so many variables day to day.”
Everything went her way against the 18th-seeded Shnaider, a 20-year-old Russian who played one season of college tennis at NC State and a silver medal in women’s doubles at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Pegula won 22 games, hit six aces, saved 7 of the 9 break points she faced and claimed five of Shnaider’s service games.
“My movement has really improved, which has really helped me stay in a lot of these points and these sets and these games and be super consistent,” Pegula said. “I’m serving pretty well. Even when it’s not working, I’ve been able to pull myself out of service games by serving smart or serving well in big moments like today where she came back really well.”
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