In an all-American quarter-final, Jessica Pegula defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-2 7-6(1) on Wednesday afternoon to reach the Last 4 at the Australian Open for the first time.
[After being broken]I said to myself, ‘Get back to work right away. You have to win this tiebreak unless you want to go to a third set.’ And I really didn’t want that. So luckily, yes, I was able to flip the switch. When she’s down, she really plays with nothing to lose, and that’s really dangerous. So I’m happy that I was able to turn that around in the tiebreak. Jessica Pegula
It took Pegula an hour and 35 minutes to defeat Anisimova with relative ease, registering the 14th victory in her past 15 meetings against American opposition, and continuing her remarkable run of domestic dominance.
“It’s amazing,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “I’ve been able to go deeper at the US Open over the last few years, but this was the first Slam where I really broke through. And I was a three-time and this year a four-time quarterfinalist.
“I was like, ‘It has to happen, you know. The next round I have to go to the semi-finals’. Because I feel like I’m playing really good tennis here, and I like the conditions. And I’ve always felt that even the matches I’ve lost here, I’ve played well. So I’ve been waiting for the moment where I could kind of break through.”
The last time Jessica Pegula faced a compatriot in the quarterfinals of the AO, she fell in 3 sets to eventual finalist Jennifer Brady in 2021.
© William West/AFP via Getty Images
This year, Pegula was simply too clean and clinical against Anisimova to reach the Last 4, where she will meet fifth seed Elena Rybakina for a place in the final, after the Russian-born Kazakh world number 2 upset Iga Swiatek of Poland 7-5 6-1 earlier in the day.
After falling at the quarterfinal hurdle in Melbourne three years in a row, from 2021 to 2023, 31-year-old Pegula finally made his breakthrough after setting the tone early.
With minimal fuss, she closed the 30-minute opening set with an ace on the T, which was already her sixth of the match.
Fourth seed Anisimova had her chances in the second set but was rarely able to summon her A-game both on serve and from the floor, often cutting a pained, frustrated figure as the self-proclaimed perfectionist searched for answers.
Although the first set had been easy, the second set was more competitive as, after the 24-year-old from New Jersey earned her first break of the match for a 5-3 lead, she gave herself a chance to serve out the set.
However, New York native Pegula immediately broke back, jumping on an inopportune double fault to break right back, then held on in the next game.
Anisimova’s service problems continued, coughing up three more double faults in the 11th game when Pegula, now in full attack mode upon return, broke again for a 6-5 lead with the help of a forehand winner that set up her second break point, but she could not serve it.
While serving for the match, Pegula was broken again, sending the set into a tiebreak.
“I felt like I was winning a lot of points,” Pegula said later. “I felt like I could win the rallies and I felt like I could put pressure on her serve. So [after being broken]I said to myself, ‘Get back to work right away. You have to win this tiebreak unless you want to go to a third set.’ And I really didn’t want that. So luckily, yes, I was able to flip the switch.
“When she is down, she really plays with nothing to lose, and that is really dangerous. So I am happy that I was able to turn that around in the tiebreak.”
Amanda Anisimova had her chances in the second set, but Jessica Pegula won in the break on Wednesday afternoon
© Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
However, the delay proved short-lived as Pegula dominated the tiebreak.
Pegula took the first minibreak at 3/1 and then grabbed another point from Anisimova’s serve for a 4/1 lead as frustration began to set in for the two-time Grand Slam finalist.
The sixth seed took advantage, scoring seven straight points to close out the match and earning her smooth passage to her third Grand Slam semi-final, and her second in a row, after last year’s US Open in her home city.
It also earned her a semi-final date with Rybakina.
Pegula’s victory marked her eighth straight victory over an American in a Grand Slam, while also becoming the first American woman to defeat three compatriots at a single Australian Open since Gigi Fernández accomplished the feat in 1993.
After defeating McCartney Kessler in the second round and defending champion Madison Keys in the fourth round, Pegula now added Anisimova in the quarterfinals.
Anisimova and Pegula reached the Last 8 without dropping a set, but while that suggested both were in top form, the fourth seed’s path was much shakier than the scorelines suggested, and she went into the quarterfinals having averaged 28 unforced errors in the first four rounds.
That trend continued against Pegula, as she finished with 44 unforced errors, including 7 double faults in the second set alone, against just 18 winners.
Amanda Anisimova couldn’t bring her A-game against Jessica Pegula, losing in straight sets in the quarterfinals
© Martin Keep/AFP via Getty Images
Pegula, meanwhile, kept her game clean, making 21 unforced errors against her 20 winners, and apart from a costly double fault while serving for the match at 6-5 in the second set, she kept her margins tight throughout.
The 31-year-old also outplayed her opponent, dominating in almost every statistical category, although Anisimova did score a slightly higher first serve percentage, 61% to Pegula’s 60%.
Pegula hit more aces, 6 to 2, made fewer double faults, 2 to 7, and won a higher percentage of first-serve points, 70% to 58%.
The biggest difference came on the second serve, with Pegula winning a whopping 64%, which is 16 of 25 of those points, compared to 39% for Anisimova, 11 of 28.
Pegula punished Anisimova’s second throw, routinely intervening and attacking it, and won more than 60% of those points, while generating 11 break points, including 7 in the second set alone, and converting 4, a pair in each set.
Her next hurdle is Rybakina, who has split their six career meetings, with the American winning their first match in Miami in 2022 but the Kazakh claiming their most recent meeting, following a WTA Finals semi-final defeat a few months ago.
“She has a huge portion, big groundies, cool as a cucumber, you can’t get anything out of her,” Pegula said of Rybakina. “And honestly, she’s been playing great tennis since the end of last year. But I’m going to do my best to, hopefully, crack the code for her for the next round, and we’ll see how it goes.”
A win would send Pegula to her first AO final, while a second appearance in the championship match is on the line for Rybakina.
“[She’s a] very experienced opponent, and she moves well,” said Rybakina of Pegula. “Her ball also remains quite low… that makes [it] sometimes a bit difficult to play her. But I will try to adapt and yes, we will see who will win.”
Amanda Anisimova became frustrated with Jessica Pegula’s consistently aggressive attack and let go of her coaches during the second set tiebreak
© David Gray/AFP via Getty Images
As for Anisimova, both her loss in straight sets and her frustration on the court, when she shouted at her coaches after falling behind 5/1 at the break, caught the attention of many, and she spoke about it, writing on Instagram: “I’m still living and learning. The way I behaved on the court today was not the way I want to behave myself while playing. After some reflection, I understand that it will be difficult to achieve my goals that way.”
“My emotions got the better of me and maybe I need to get my PMS under control (jk, not really). I’m happy with my few weeks here and I’ll come back stronger next year
“Thanks for all the support as always, I couldn’t live without it. Congratulations to Jess, she’s in great form and good luck the rest of the way.”
Although she had lost the battle against the sixth seed, her AO campaign had been nothing short of excellent, not dropping a set in her four matches against Simona Waltert, Kateřina Siniaková, Peyton Stearns and Wang Xinyu.
Even more impressive was that this was the 24-year-old’s first ever quarter-final at Melbourne Park, and it appears the nerves were finally getting to her, as they had in the Wimbledon final last summer.
#Melbourne #Pegula #drives #Anisimova #Rybakina