{"id":130176,"date":"2025-09-03T17:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/130176\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T17:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:07:13","slug":"u-s-open-quarterfinal-recap-jessica-pegula-cruises-under-the-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/130176\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open quarterfinal recap: Jessica Pegula cruises under the radar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the U.S. Open<\/a> briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.<\/p>\n

On Day 10, the first day of the quarterfinals, an under-the-radar contender came through, Arthur Ashe remained one-sided, and there was heartache for a quarterfinalist.<\/p>\n

An American leading woman keeps it moving<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula\u2019s U.S. Open has not been a requiem for a work-in-progress serve and forehand<\/a>, nor a succession of testing three-set thrillers. She has played on the biggest courts, but largely remained under the radar.<\/p>\n

The world No. 4 has been backing up her run to the finals last year with a run to the semifinals this year. In eight of 10 sets, Pegula has allowed her opponent three or fewer games.<\/p>\n

Until Tuesday, she hadn\u2019t played an in-form opponent with pedigree, admitting in a news conference Tuesday that she had had a \u201cfavorable draw.\u201d Still, it\u2019s hard to win matches at Grand Slams, no matter who is on the other side of the net. Pegula has demonstrated that this year, losing to Olga Danilovi\u0107 in Australia, Lo\u00efs Boisson in Paris and Elisabetta Cocciaretto at Wimbledon. Their average ranking, based on when she played them, is 177.<\/p>\n

During the first 10 days of the U.S. Open, Pegula may have been the most under-the-radar high seed. It\u2019s worked out quite well, especially Tuesday, when she knocked off Barbora Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1, a two-time Grand Slam winner and a tough out regardless of her ranking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to kind of go into those matches and really take care of business,\u201d Pegula said after the win.<\/p>\n

She will need to complete some unfinished business if she wants to make a second consecutive final. She faces Aryna Sabalenka in the last four, the woman who beat her in two tight sets during last year\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Futterman<\/p>\n

Drama in short supply at the biggest stadium<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of days, the 24,000 fans who filled Arthur Ashe Stadium have been a little short on excitement.<\/p>\n

All but one of the matches on Sunday were won in straight sets. On Monday, all four were, including two blowouts in a night session that ended at the unusually civilised time of around 10:30 p.m. after the two losing players, Alexander Bublik and Beatriz Haddad Maia, won six games between them against Jannik Sinner and Amanda Anisimova, respectively.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s day session was similarly uncompetitive, with Pegula and Carlos Alcaraz comfortable straight-sets winners over Barbora Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1 and Ji\u0159\u00ed Lehe\u010dka, respectively. Then there was the rough news that Mark\u00e9ta Vondrou\u0161ov\u00e1 had pulled out of her quarterfinal against Aryna Sabalenka, which was going to open the night session.<\/p>\n

That made it a one-match affair, with fans desperate for Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz to, between them, make up for a relatively sleepy couple of days. After a one-sided start, they delivered, with Djokovic playing to the crowd and asking for their love while Fritz roused himself in front of his home supporters.<\/p>\n

Djokovic ultimately beat Fritz in four sets<\/a>, but the American winning the third \u2014 and a compelling end to the fourth \u2014 gave the fans something to get excited about after a sleepy 48 hours of tennis.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Charlie Eccleshare\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sinner and Alcaraz go bar for bar at a Grand Slam again<\/p>\n

At this stage of the French Open in June, a dynamic developed wherein whatever Sinner did one day, Alcaraz would try and top the next, and vice versa. So when Sinner destroyed No. 17 seed Andrey Rublev for the loss of eight games on Sunday, Alcaraz thrashed Tommy Paul for the loss of just five the following evening. The next day, Sinner won his quarterfinal against Alexander Bublik for the loss of six games, just missing out on bettering his rival.<\/p>\n

When Sinner beat Bublik 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on Monday night at the U.S. Open, the player in need of the most sympathy \u2014 other than Bublik \u2014 was Alcaraz\u2019s next opponent, Lehe\u010dka. The Spaniard would not want to be outdone.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, he came out on Tuesday afternoon and put on a clinic. The 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 scoreline wasn\u2019t as comprehensive as Sinner\u2019s, but it was a dazzling display of shotmaking to go with an excellent serving day, during which Alcaraz didn\u2019t face a single break point.<\/p>\n

Lorenzo Musetti, Sinner\u2019s quarterfinal opponent on Wednesday, knows to expect a barrage as the Big Two\u2019s one-upmanship continues.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n

Shot\u00a0of the day<\/p>\n

Alcaraz hit flashier, more ridiculous shots than this one against Lehe\u010dka, but the \u201cis more ridiculous than it looks\u201d category of shot needs honoring sometimes. This inside-in forehand while moving backward is absurd.<\/p>\n

\"\"Up next: Quarterfinals<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Felix Auger-Aliassime (25) vs. Alex de Minaur (8)<\/p>\n

11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN\/ESPN+<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime, 25, and de Minaur, 26, were both tipped to win majors as they rose through the ranks of men\u2019s tennis. To date, they have had top-10 careers, won titles and fought with the very best, but have never looked close to winning a Grand Slam title. Now they meet, likely for the right to face Jannik Sinner, one of the two players who have locked them out thus far.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Amanda Anisimova (8) vs. Iga \u015awi\u0105tek (2)<\/p>\n

2 p.m. ET (estimated) on ESPN\/ESPN+<\/p>\n

A rematch of the Wimbledon final, in which Anisimova froze and \u015awi\u0105tek relentlessly exploited her vulnerability in a 6-0, 6-0 win. Both players have used the experience as a springboard. Anisimova is straight back into a Grand Slam quarterfinal, while \u015awi\u0105tek won the Cincinnati Open and has moved quickly through the draw.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Naomi Osaka (23) vs. Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 (11)<\/p>\n

7 p.m. ET on ESPN\/ESPN+<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s U.S. Open, Osaka entered unseeded and got two tough breaks: Jelena Ostapenko in the first round and Muchov\u00e1 in the second. The four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 beat Ostapenko, but Muchov\u00e1 maneuvered Osaka out of her comfort zone at the baseline and discombobulated her. This is a different Osaka, with much improved movement and a new serenity about herself on-court, but the matchup remains a challenge.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfbe Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Lorenzo Musetti (10)<\/p>\n

8:45 p.m. ET (estimated) on ESPN\/ESPN+<\/p>\n

Musetti, who is not a natural hard-court player, is in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal on the surface against the best hard-court player in the world, who happens to be his compatriot. There is no sugar-coating how tough an assignment this is for Musetti, but he does have the knifing backhand slice and ability to change tempo that have troubled Sinner in recent matches against Denis Shapovalov and Grigor Dimitrov.<\/p>\n

U.S. Open men\u2019s draw 2025U.S. Open women\u2019s draw 2025<\/p>\n

Tell us what you noticed on the 10th day\u2026<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Jessica Pegula: Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open 2025. Welcome to the U.S. Open briefing, where The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-130176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}