Jessica Pegula outlasted a pair of delays to storm past Bianca Andreescu 7-5, 6-1 and into the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open in Spain on Tuesday.
Pegula, the No. 12 seed, now has reached seven quarterfinals of the 11 WTA 1000 tournaments played since the 2020 Western & Southern Open, along with the quarters of the Australian Open in 2021 and 2022.
The American twice fell down a break in the first set but rebounded to take the lead 6-5 in a set that saw her have 17 break chances, converting three of them.
The final service break came with Andreescu serving down 6-5 when play resumed after the Canadian needed a medical timeout for a bloody nose. She fought off four set points but lost her serve, and the set, when her backhand shot was long.
“I felt like the first set was super-awkward — no one could really take control with all the chances,” Pegula said. “Three for 17 on break points is an insane stat, that has to be a record. So that was interesting. But I was mentally able to stay in it and win the set. But it was awkward. I think we were both super on edge.”
After dropping her serve to open the second set in a game that featured six deuces, Pegula steamrolled past Canada’s Andreescu despite a half-hour delay for rain. After the rain delay at 3-1, she won nine straight points to take a 5-1 lead and then serve for the match.
In the quarterfinals on Wednesday, Pegula will meet Sara Sorribes Tormo, a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 winner over Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
Sorribes Tormo is the only Spaniard remaining on the home clay courts, and Pegula is expecting a tough match.
“You just have to expect every ball to come back,” Pegula said. “What she does so great is she plays every point so tough, it doesn’t matter the score. You just expect that, and do your best to do the same thing. Just staying focused, getting your strategy right and not getting frustrated is probably the most important, but easier said than done.”
In other action Tuesday, a pair of seeded women – No. 9 Emma Raducanu of Great Britain and No. 16 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan fell.
Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina continued her run through the tournament, defeating defending U.S. Open champion Raducanu 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours, 19 minutes.
Both players struggled to win points on their first serve. Kalinina won just 57.9 percent (33 of 57) points on her first serve, with Raducanu capitalizing just 62.3 percent of the time (38 of 61). Her serve was broken five times, and she, in turn, broke Kalinina’s serve four times.
Next up for Kalinina is Jil Teichmann of Switzerland, who defeated Rybakina 6-3, 6-1 in just 77 minutes.
–Field Level Media