Pegula holds off Krejcikova at US Open to make second Slam semifinal

Twelve months after breaking through the Grand Slam quarterfinal barrier at the US Open, Jessica Pegula has done it again. The No. 4 seed and last year's runner-up reached the second major semifinal of her career with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Barbora Krejcikova in 1 hour and 26 minutes.

US Open: Draws | Scores | Order of play

Pegula, 31, becomes just the second player among those who began their career in the Open Era to reach her first two Grand Slam semifinals after turning 30. She follows Flavia Pennetta, who made the 2013 US Open semifinals aged 31 and then became the champion in New York two years later.

Krejcikova had won the pair's last two meetings, at Dubai 2023 and the WTA Finals Riyadh 2024, but Pegula has been the victor both times they have met at Grand Slams -- back in 2023, she was a 7-5, 6-2 winner in the Australian Open fourth round.

Pegula and Krejcikova had come through contrasting paths to the last eight. Two-time major champion Krejcikova, currently ranked No. 62 due to her six-month injury layoff this year, had pulled off three-set comebacks in her last two matches against Emma Navarro and Taylor Townsend. In the latter, which ran 3 hours and 4 minutes, she saved eight match points -- the most of any player in a Grand Slam this year.

Pegula, meanwhile, had conceded just 17 games en route to the quarterfinals, a total that has only risen to 23 to reach the semifinals. She has yet to face a Top 50 player so far, and will face either No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka or No. 60-ranked Marketa Vondrousova in a bid to return to the final.

"I think I've gotten somewhat of a favorable draw leading up to today," Pegula acknowledged in press afterwards. "I think I haven't really had to play anyone like matchup-wise as well that has really bothered me a ton, so I think that's helped. But at the same time, I've been able to kind of go into those matches and really take care of business."

Quick starts in both sets: The two players came out of the blocks in contrasting fashion, encapsulated by Krejcikova's first service game. It began by Pegula crunching two forehand winners, which were followed by Krejcikova airing a smash and then double faulting to get broken.

The Czech began to find her rhythm in the fourth game, and clung on to Pegula's heels for the next few games. Krejcikova fended off a point to go down 4-0 and another to go down 5-1, and was rewarded by getting back on serve at 4-3. But Pegula held firm and Krejcikova dipped again to lose the next two games for the set.

Tired-looking errors and double faults meant that Krejcikova quickly fell behind 4-1 in the second set too. Once again, she found flashes of brilliance -- a chipped drop shot return that foiled Pegula completely -- to claw back one of the breaks and reduce the deficit to 4-3. And once again, Pegula halted the mini momentum shift with solid tennis to close out the match. Krejcikova finished with 24 unforced errors, including seven double faults, to only 14 winners. Pegula tallied 17 winners to 20 unforced errors.

"I think I've been playing some really good tennis," said Pegula in her on-court interview. "I've just been playing really solid. I've been having some very good, quick serves, and I really wanted to do that today, especially against someone like her who's very dangerous. Even at the end there, it got really tight -- she had a couple really good returns when I was serving at 4-1, and we all saw what she did against Taylor ... so yeah, I was happy that we're done."

Pegula expanded on how she had held off any plot twists in press afterwards.

"There were moments in the match where she hit some really good shots where I felt like the momentum could have shifted and stuff like that," she said. "But I did a good job, again, of playing the score really well, recognizing those moments, the momentum shifts, and I think that's something I've done well throughout every single match -- which is kind of giving me the confidence that I've needed to work my way all the way to the semis."

How Pegula found confidence after a lean summer: That confidence had not been there at the start of the tournament. Pegula came into Flushing Meadows having lost four of her past six matches. After winning her third title of the year on the grass of Bad Homburg in June, she fell at the first hurdle to Elisabetta Cocciaretto at Wimbledon, lost her Washington opener to Leylah Fernandez, then made third-round exits in Montreal and Cincinnati to Anastasija Sevastova and Magda Linette respectively.

"Wimbledon wasn't great," she said. "I was a little, I don't know, frustrated after Wimbledon because obviously I won Bad Homburg and I was playing so well, and then of course you see Iga [whom Pegula defeated in the Bad Homburg final] go on to win Wimbledon. I felt like I was playing good tennis, and it just did not translate at all for that first round. I played someone that was playing really, really well, and that sucks.

"So it was kind of back to the drawing board. I got to spend a few weeks at home, but I think for the first few weeks I was maybe overthinking a few things that I felt like I needed to do better on the hard courts, instead of just going back to how I know I can win a lot of matches ... There were just a lot of things. I was trying a different string. I was doing, I think, too much.

"When we came in after Cincinnati, another tough loss to Magda, I think our goal was just to get back on track and simplify things... to get me back playing my game, and I feel like we've been able to do that. So I'm really happy that the challenge was met, I guess."