Jessica Pegula defeats Krejcikova to reach third straight Australian Open quarterfinal

Jessica Pegula reached her third consecutive Australian Open quarterfinal on Sunday, defeating 2021 Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova, 7-5, 6-2, in the round of 16.

Pegula is now 5-0 in round-of-16 matches at Grand Slams:

• 2021 Australian Open 4th Rd: d. Svitolina, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• 2022 Australian Open 4th Rd: d. Sakkari, 7-6 (0), 6-3
• 2022 Roland Garros 4th Rd: d. Begu, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
• 2022 US Open 4th Rd: d. Kvitova, 6-3, 6-2
• 2023 Australian Open 4th Rd: d. Krejcikova, 7-5, 6-2

In what was the pair’s first career meeting, Pegula drew first blood with a break for 4-3 and then held for 5-3, and even brought up double set point with Krejcikova serving at 3-5, 15-40—but Krejcikova dug herself out of that hole to hold, and then broke Pegula back to even the opening set up at 5-all.

A seven-minute, 11-deuce game followed, with Krejcikova getting four chances to hold but ultimately getting broken, and from there it was all Pegula, who won eight of the last 10 games of the match to advance after an hour and 41 minutes on court.

Pegula finished with an even 20 winners to 20 unforced errors on the day, while Krejcikova had 19 winners to 36 unforced errors.

“It was a really good match,” Pegula said afterwards.

“I thought it was really high level, first set especially. Got a little tricky there trying to close that first set out—had some set points, a weird point where I, like, probably should have moved in, but I didn’t know if she got it or not. I was messing around.

“It’s tough when you play someone that has a lot of expereince, that it can flip a match. I’m glad that I was able to fight and win that first set, then kind of go on a roll from there.”

With No. 2 seed Ons Jabeur falling in the second round and No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek losing to Elena Rybakina on Sunday, Pegula—the No. 3 seed—is the highest women’s seed left.

But she says she doesn’t really feel like it.

“It’s an interesting feeling, I guess. I still don’t really feel like that," she said. "I mean, I look at the draw and there’s still girls—today, she won the French Open, you have Rybakina who won Wimbledon last year, you have Vika who does really well here, Caroline won the championships. It doesn’t really feel like I’m the highest left, even though I guess that’s a cool stat.

“It feels like there’s still a long ways to go, to be honest.”

Up next for Pegula in the quarterfinals will be either No. 24 seed Victoria Azarenka or China’s Zhu Lin, who played the late night match on Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night.