Jessica Pegula and Sofia Kenin, a tortoise and a hare at the US Open

NEW YORK—Two American women with something to prove, if only to themselves, met in a second-round match at the US Open on Thursday. But the incentive driving either could not have been more different.

Sofia Kenin is a 25-year-old former prodigy, a Grand Slam champion by 21, who is in the process of trying to reprise her glory days after a few tumultuous and frustrating years. Jessica Pegula is 30, a relatively slow but steady learner who has become a staple at the top of the game (current ranking: No. 6). But she has stalled at the threshold of a Grand Slam semifinal on six recent occasions.

Which situation is more challenging?

Pegula laughed at the question, and said: “I don’t know how to answer that. I think we all have our own challenges and our own issues that we have to deal with, so it’s tough to talk about who has a tougher situation.”

After a moment’s reflection, she added, “But for me, I guess I’ve just used a lot of the consistency and the confidence that maybe she hasn’t had as much lately to the best of my ability.”

That was also as good a summation of the match as you could ask. Kenin won both of their previous meetings, but that was back in 2021, when Kenin was on fire. The tortoise to Kenin’s hare, Pegula has come a long way since then, and the day-in, day-out quality and dependability she has cultivated showed.

Although this wasn’t Pegula’s best recent performance by far, she stayed on message and exploited glitches and momentary lapses in Kenin’s game to win, 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Neither woman showed fierce intent at the outset. Pegula was broken in the second game, but she broke right back with some sloppy play by Kenin. The women exchanged breaks again to 3-all, but then settled in and held serves to reach a tiebreaker. That’s where Pegula’s class—and Kenin’s inability to close—showed.

Kenin tossed in errors on both points she served from 2-1 up in the breaker, which provided Pegula with a cushion that saw her through to the conclusion of the set. Kenin broke Pegula and then held to start set two, but Pegula broke back for 2-2, then reeled off four of the five last games. Each woman had seven break points, with Pegula converting just one more (4) than Kenin. The margin separating them wasn’t very wide.

“She's a Grand Slam champion,” Pegula said. “She knows she can play at a high level, and I feel like she's been playing a little bit more solid this year. Obviously Sofia can still play some great tennis and I feel she’s capable of upsetting a lot of top players.”

“I lost to someone playing amazing tennis, so I can’t be too hard on myself,” Kenin said. “It might have been different if a few things had gone my way in the first set. Even when I was up a break in the second, she maintained that consistent level, very poker-faced and not up-and-down in her emotions.”

Composure has become one of Pegula’s trademarks, and it serves her well when she’s facing rivals who bring more power to the table, who can attack her serve and force her out of the kind of patterned, precise tennis at which she excels.

Pegula’s sangfroid cracked just once during the match, when she slammed her racquet—without great conviction, it must be said—to the ground after an unforced error in the first set. It gifted Kenin a break point that could have resulted in a 5-3 lead. But Pegula tightened-up her game and held. There was that margin again.

Is this a new, more emotive Pegula we’re seeing?

We saw her break down in tears during the on-court festivities after her first-round win over Shelby Rogers, a match that ended the South Carolinian’s career as a singles player. Even Rogers, herself emotional about retiring, was surprised to see Pegula weeping.

“I can’t believe I cried more than Shelby,” Pegula said. “She was like, ‘How? What?’ I was, like, ‘Yeah, I don't know, I'm so sorry.’”

But Pegula is not about to begin ripping into court officials, tossing chairs onto the court, or venting to supervisors any time soon. On the rare occasions when she feels she may have been a little too expressive, a video review will put her mind at rest. (“I'm, like, ‘It doesn't even look like anything.’ [Other] people don't even notice it because it looks, like, normal.”)

Nor is Pegula envious of players who feel free to let all their emotions hang out. It’s usually others who approach Pegula to tell they’re jealous about how “even-keeled” she is under duress.

“Maybe it would be more fun if I could be a Ben (Shelton) or even a Coco (Gauff) or a Tiafoe,” she said. “But I just can't. Sometimes when I do get really fired up, it makes me tired. It’s exhausting because I'm having to exert so much emotion because that's not how I am. I just try to stay in my little personality bubble I guess.”

That bubble has proved protective, and it has played a role in her success. In a way, all top players exist in a bubble of comfort, which is just what Kenin is hoping to create for herself again. In her case, it’s a bubble of confidence. The kind of confidence she once had as a free-swinging 21-year old.

You might think that looking back on what she has achieved might be inspirational for Kenin, but memory has limited usefulness.

“I believe I can do it again,” she said. “I’m grateful for that moment but I try not to look back on that too much, and I have to try to move on and build up what I have right now.”