Jessica Pegula has recorded her first win over a world No.1 player after brushing aside Australian Open favourite Iga Swiatek in straight sets at the United Cup.
Pegula, who had only ever beaten a top 10 player 10 times in her career prior to the clash, stormed to an impressive 6-2, 6-2, victory in just over 70 minutes. Pegula won 83% of her first service points and broke the Pole five times during the match. It is only the second time she has beaten Swiatek on the Tour after their meeting at the 2019 Citi Open but the world No.3 still trails their head-to-head 2-4.
“I’ve played her in a lot of different places, but I definitely feel like these were the fastest conditions,” Pegula said afterwards.
“Also, I know they had a tough turnaround yesterday flying here, and we’ve been lucky enough to be here and maybe have a little bit of an advantage being used to the courts. But I wanted to take that and use it as much as I could, and I thought I did a really good job playing aggressive, serving smart and returning really well.”
The triumph brings an end to Swiatek’s run of winning 11 straight matches whilst representing Poland in team events. She struggled to generate any momentum throughout her latest match and won less than 40% of her service points. It is the heaviest defeat she has suffered at a WTA event since the 2021 Dubai Tennis Championships where she also only won four games against Garbine Muguruza.
“She’s one of the best players in the world so you have to be really on top of your game to win against Jessie. It was always like that, even last season,” said Swiatek.
“So I’m not surprised (that she won) because I know what she can do. I was just more surprised that I wasn’t able to step up to her game today.”
Team USA went on to extend their lead with the help of Frances Tiafoe who eased past world No.245 Kacper Żuk 6-3, 6-3. The US Open semi-finalist has won all six matches he has played in this year’s event, including the mixed doubles. Out of his four singles matches, he has only dropped one set which was against Britain’s Dan Evans.
“My level is pretty high, it has been for a while now,” said Tiafoe. “I believe I’m playing some of the best tennis of my life, I’m just having fun out there on court. Jess (Pegula) is an unbelievable player and after that I was like, ‘yeah, I need to come out and put on a show for you guys’.”
America now only needs to win one out of their three matches on Saturday in order to secure their place in the United Cup final. Next up will be Taylor Fritz against Hubert Hurkacz.
The winner of the tie will play either Greece or Italy in the final.
