Top seed Samantha Stosur faced a stunning 7-6 6-3 defeat at the hands of World No. 173 Jessica Pegula in the quarter-final of the Citi Open in Washington.
Pegula, a wildcard entrant, produced a near-perfect performance on serve, dropping just six off her 42 points on first serve, and consolidating her service game throughout to pull off her biggest career-win.
Pegula rallied from 1-4 down in the first-set tie-breaker to pocket seven points in a row, before acquiring the solitary break of the match at 4-3 in the second set to emerge victorious in the 89-minute scuffle.
Moving on, she is scheduled to lock horns with fellow American Lauren Davis, who cruised for a 6-4 6-4 conquest of Italy’s Camila Giorgi in the other last-eight match-up.
Elsewhere, No. 6 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and No. 7 seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium set-up the other semi-final encounter.
Whilst Puntintseva was clinical en route a 6-4 6-2 victory against Japan’s Risa Ozaki, Wickmayer rallied from a set down to shock fourth-seeded Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic 4-6 6-3 6-4.
Wickmayer had won the only battle between the two in Birmingham 2013.
