Jessica Pegula, daughter of NFL crew house owners, stuns No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina to make Australian Open quarterfinals
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Pegula was the aggressor from the outset, with Svitolina unusually passive, permitting the American to dictate the early proceedings, clinching the primary set.
Ukrainian Svitolina rallied within the second set and helped by a patchy spell from Pegula leveled the match. However Pegula recovered her poise and ran away within the closing set to succeed in the final eight of a grand slam for the primary time in her profession.
“I am simply comfortable that I am competing effectively, hitting effectively, shifting effectively. I really feel good, every little thing feels fairly stable, so I am simply going to take that to the subsequent match.”
In beating Svitolina, the 26-year-old recorded her first profession top-10 victory. At this yr’s grand slam, Pegula has already overwhelmed two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, US Open champion Sam Stosur and Kristina Mladenovic with out dropping a set.
For the 26-year-old Svitolina, it was her sixth grand slam loss to a participant ranked outdoors the highest 30 since she grew to become a top-10 mainstay herself in Might 2017 as she searches for her maiden grand slam title.
“It is disappointing as a result of I have been taking part in superb however I really feel prefer it was a kind of days the place nothing was going my manner.”
Pegula’s victory units up a gathering together with her compatriot and No. 22 Jennifer Brady, who overcame No. 28 seed Donna Vekic 6-1, 7-5 on Monday.