The phrase \u201cexpect the unexpected\u201d may have met its match in Jessica Pegula.<\/p>\n
Wuhan: Scores<\/a> | Draws<\/a> | Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n For the sixth straight outing, Pegula took the court, and the result was a three-setter — and for the fifth time, she came out on top.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t remember the last time I played two sets,\u201d Pegula said after the match. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been competing really hard and I\u2019ve been playing a lot of really good players. It was different conditions today with the roof closed and I think it took us a little while to get adjusted, but then I felt like it was a really high level there for the rest of the match.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just excited I was able to get over the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n The American rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the opening set to defeat No. 9 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in 2 hours and 6 minutes, advancing to the Dongfeng \u00b7 Voyah Wuhan Open quarterfinals for the first time in her career.<\/p>\n Pegula improved to 3-3 in the head-to-head against Alexandrova, earning her first win over the Russian on a surface other than clay. She\u2019ll face the winner of Iva Jovic and Katerina Siniakova in the next round.<\/p>\n Here are some takeaways following another Pegula three-set victory:<\/p>\n Moment(s) of the match: Two pivotal stretches defined the match — one in the opening set, the other in the decider.<\/p>\n With Alexandrova serving at 5-5, 15-30 in the first set, Pegula capped off a 12-shot rally with a blistering backhand winner to earn a break point, she converted, securing a 6-5 lead to allow her to serve for the set. It was the fourth of five straight games won by Pegula in her opening-set comeback.<\/p>\n Fast forward to the third set, and Pegula was trailing 7-5, 3-6, 1-2 and facing 30\u201330 on Alexandrova\u2019s serve. What followed was a defensive masterclass by Pegula.<\/p>\n She chased down multiple would-be winners — including a smash — and ended an 18-shot rally with a forehand winner to earn another break point. She converted, leveling the set at 2-all.<\/p>\n The break sparked a run of four straight games for Pegula, who surged to a 5-2 lead before closing out the match a couple games later.<\/p>\n Three is key: Winning three-setters has become a habit for Pegula, albeit an unintentional one.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s match marked her sixth consecutive three-setter, dating back to her third-round clash with Emma Raducanu last week in Beijing.<\/p>\n Across the 2025 season, Pegula has played a Hologic WTA Tour-leading 25 three-set matches, compiling a 14-11 record. Only Madison Keys (15) has won more three-setters than Pegula this year.<\/p>\n The 31-year-old went 13-7 in such matches in 2024.<\/p>\n Quarterfinal queen: With Thursday\u2019s win, Pegula has now reached the quarterfinals of a WTA event 10 times this season. Only Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka (13 each) have more.<\/p>\n She is 7-2 in quarterfinal matches thus far this season, coincidentally with both losses coming against Alexandrova.<\/p>\n Pegula also became the third active player, joining Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, to reach the quarterfinals at all 10 WTA 1000 tournaments on the calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The phrase \u201cexpect the unexpected\u201d may have met its match in Jessica Pegula. Wuhan: Scores | Draws |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":{"0":"post-199656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}