Pegula sweeps into US Open semifinals

NEW YORK: American Jessica Pegula reached her second straight US Open semifinal with a clinical 6-3 6-3 win over twice Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova on Tuesday, in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Fourth-ranked Pegula had a dreadful run-up to the year’s final major but has flipped the script in New York, where she has yet to drop a set and fired off 17 winners to beat the unseeded Czech.

Krejcikova recovered from injuries earlier this year and saved eight match points in a fourth-round thriller to reach the final eight but ran out of gas against the 2024 runner-up.

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Pegula will next play the winner of the match later on Tuesday between the defending champion and world number one Aryna Sabalenka and unseeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova.

Meanwhile, second seed Carlos Alcaraz was leading his Czech opponent Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 2-2 in the first quarterfinals in men’s draw by the time this report filed.

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Alcaraz is set to meet Novak Djokovic in the semis if they overpower their opponents in the quarterfinals.

Djokovic, a Serbian who has bagged 24 Grand Slams in his career, will face fourth seed American Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinal.