Pegula hopes seventh time's the charm

Pursuit of Grand Slam breakthrough reaches quarterfinals - where the world No. 1 awaits

- HOWARD FENDRICH

Jessica Pegula, a straight-sets winner in Monday's round of 16 in New York, has won 13 of her past 14 matches.

Jessica Pegula is back in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open after a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Diana Shnaider on Monday, her seventh trip to that round at a Grand Slam tournament. Now comes the hard part: Pegula is 0-6 in major quarterfinals over her career — and this next one will come against world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

The No. 6-seeded Pegula, an American whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, is on quite a run having won 13 of her past 14 matches, all on hard courts. That included her second consecutive National Bank Open 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 been more pressure this year, because I did so well coming into this tournament,” said the 30-year-old Pegula, the oldest woman left in the field. “I want to keep working my way and hopefully bringing my best tennis for the later rounds this time.”

Swiatek was tied at 4-all with No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova on Monday night before grabbing seven straight games en route to winning 6-4, 6-1. When Swiatek captured the 2022 U.S. Open for one of her five Grand Slam titles, she eliminated Pegula in the quarterfinals.