Jessica Pegula didn’t have her best stuff Tuesday night in New York — especially on serve — but she did what she usually does and found a way through.<\/p>\n
The No. 3 seed rallied from a set down and overcame an early third-set deficit to defeat No. 26 seed Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in 2 hours and 21 minutes inside a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium, advancing to the US Open semifinals for the third straight year.<\/p>\n
US Open:\u00a0Scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Order of play<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Draws<\/a><\/p>\n “It was really tough. It was physical. It was humid. I wasn’t exactly serving my best, and I was fighting a lot of demons out there today,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “So thank you guys so much for coming out here. It’s an honor to play in front of you guys. There’s nothing like it.”<\/p>\n It’s Pegula’s fourth Grand Slam semifinal overall; she also reached the last four at the Australian Open earlier this year.<\/p>\n The 2024 US Open runner-up improves to 5-0 against Navarro, with three of those wins coming in three sets. Pegula owns the most three-set wins (90) and comeback wins (48) of any WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz player since the start of the decade.<\/p>\n Despite winning just 41% of her second-serve points, Pegula finished with more winners (31) than unforced errors (30) and broke Navarro five times. Neither player found much rhythm throughout, combining for 24 break points.<\/p>\n “It was super back and forth,” Navarro said in her post-match press conference. “I think there was a minute where I felt like I kind of had her number. Then she probably felt the same about me for a little while and probably at the right times. I don’t know. One of us would get a little bit of momentum, and then the other would step up and play a good point.”<\/p>\n One of Pegula’s best points came when she flashed quick hands and ripped a crosscourt backhand return winner to break for 4-2 in the decider. She later produced a rare (for the night), high-quality second serve to close out the match and earn her 50th tour-level win of 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Third time’s the charm?<\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka defeated Pegula in straight sets in the 2024 US Open final, then came from a set down to beat her in last year’s semifinals. Pegula, who trails the head-to-head 4-9, hopes this year brings a different outcome.<\/p>\n “I think it’s fun to look at the rivalry we’ve had,” Pegula said in her post-match press conference. “She’s gotten me here the last couple of years. I’ve been able to beat her a few times, maybe on a smaller stage, so I think that’s going to be a hurdle for me to get over.<\/p>\n “But at the same time, I think it’s fun. We’ve challenged each other. I know she’s definitely pushed me to become a better player, so I always respect and appreciate that aspect of our rivalry.”<\/p>\n Pegula has had her moments recently, winning two of their last three meetings — a come-from-behind win last year in Wuhan and a three-set victory in the Berlin semifinals earlier this year, where she took the final set 6-0.<\/p>\n But to end the slide against Sabalenka in New York and reach a second Grand Slam final, Pegula knows she’ll need even more on Thursday.<\/p>\n “Changing the direction of the ball, not getting too predictable and making her have to move and come up with good shots on the run — I think that’s something I’ve done really well when I’ve done well against her,” Pegula said. “I think that’s going to be key for me.<\/p>\n “She’s not going to want me to do that, so it’s always a back and forth for both of us. I’m going to draw on those past few matches, but I think I’ve just been able to play pretty aggressive and get her off balance.”<\/p>\n Pegula (70.3%, 71-30) now holds the highest career win rate at Grand Slams of any active player with at least 10 matches played who has not won a Major, surpassing Elina Svitolina (70.0%, 119-51).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula didn’t have her best stuff Tuesday night in New York — especially on serve — but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-765146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}