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Good friends and now Grand Slam quarterfinal opponents.
Following the victories of the fourth round in Melbourne on Monday, Americans Jessica Pegula and Jennifer Brady will retire for a place in the last four of the Australian Open.
First up at Rod Laver Arena, Pegula’s dream of unseeded continued through the draw followed by a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 lead over No.5 seed Elina Svitolina, her first career award against a player Top 10.
“I thought I did a really good service pretty much the whole time. I think I got kind of a promising little thing in the second set. I played a good game to break it, then I didn’t hold a service. That was great, “Pegula said after the game.
“I’m just glad I reset at the start of the third one. I think that’s great. Of course you know you’re going to go three sets in the end. I thinking that the way I moved and turned it around was really, really important.
“I can’t be more confident, it’s still my best result and I play good tennis and today it was a hard win, so yeah, I feel good . “
Pegula restored the couple’s first meeting result – a direct win for Svitolina in the first round in Abu Dhabi in January – in an hour and 55 minutes. Stable power tennis was Pegula’s main key to victory, as well as the ability to reset after an inconsistency to put it in the second set.
The Americans got the definitive break of service in the fourth game of the final set, and rode its service games through to victory.
“It wasn’t a good day for me today. I was making too many mistakes. Yeah, hard to pick why it was like this. A mix of things,” Svitolina said in a loss.
“I think she played well today too. It was very difficult for me to find the rhythm because she played well in the first set, not very well in the second. Then she returned.
“I didn’t feel very good on the court today. I don’t know. It’s a disappointment because I’ve been playing really well. I feel like it was the kind of day that was where nothing was going my way. “
Overall, Pegula almost doubled the total number of Svitolina winners – 31 to 19 – and was successful at netting, winning the point on 21 of her 29 trips into the front court.
But also particularly effective, as it turned out, was the ability of Pegula to predict the future.
In the second game on Laver, Brady’s No.22 seed won 6-1, 7-5 over Donna Vekic’s No.28 seed in an hour and 34 minutes.
Croatia entered the game with bandaging on their right knee and later took medical time to add more strapping after serving in the first game of the second set.
She fought hard ahead in the second set, however, and will continue to hold on until Brady won the decisive break at 5-5.
Brady and Pegula have played once before, as last year’s Open & Southern Open. That game was won by Pegula, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
More to come …