Jessica Pegula beat her compatriot Emma Navarro 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 in 1 hour and 29 minutes to return to the quarter finals at the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
Pegula reached the semifinal in the past two editions of the Miami Open in 2022 and 2023. The Florida resident claimed her first top 20 win of the season in her first head-to-head match against world number 20 Navarro, who recently reached the quarter final at the WTA 1000 tournament at Indian Wells.
Pegula has become the US player to reach three consecutive quarter finals at the Miami Open since Serena Williams.
Pegula set up a quarter final match against Ekaterina Alexandrova, who upser world number 1 and this year’s Doha and Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek.
Navarro went up a 4-1 lead in the first set with a break in the fourth game. Pegula broke back in the seventh game at 30 and held serve at 30 to win her fourth consecutive game for 4-4. Pegula earned her second break in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead, but she was not able to serve out the first set at 6-5. Pegula earned three mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-1.
Pegula saved a total of six consecutive break points in her first three service games of the second set before breaking serve in the sixth game to open up a 4-2 lead. Pegula sealed the win on her fourth match point. Pegula has claimed nine of the last ten matches in which she has played at least one tie-break. The US player has won 15 of her 18 matches against US players dating back to the 2022 Citi Open in Washington.
