Pegula Powers Past Jovic Into Second Wimbledon Quarterfinal
Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, July 5, 2026
Photo credit: Shaun Brooks/CameraSport
Wimbledon—Darting right to defend a deep drive, Jessica Pegula pounced and punched a forehand winner down the line.
Even playing off her back foot, Pegula was a forward finisher on No. 1 Court.
In an all-American clash of the current and possibly future U.S. No. 1 players, Pegula defeated Iva Jovic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to return to the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
The fourth-seeded Pegula advanced to her second Wimbledon quarterfinal—and first since 2023—winning eight of nine sets she’s played this fortnight.
“Really tough match today. Yeah, happy to be through,” Pegula said. “Happy to get through that one. Maybe not fun in the moment winning a three-set match, but I feel when you’re playing a slam, it’s
a must to get through those tough ones.
“Really happy with the way I was able to turn it around today.”
Five American women reached the round of 16—the last time five or more U.S. women reached the Wimbledon fourth round was 2002—and now Pegula stands one win from a maiden semifinal at The Championships.
Buffalo-born Pegula will face either her former doubles partner, seventh-seeded Coco Gauff, or former Olympic gold medal champion Belinda Bencic for a semifinal spot.
The 32-year-old Pegula has beaten Gauff in five of eight meetings—they’ve split their two grass clashes—while Bencic has won four of five meetings vs. the American veteran. Former No. 4 Bencic won the first eight sets the pair played until Pegula stopped the Swiss 6-3, 7-6(5) in Indian Wells in March.
Three years ago, Pegula led eventual-champion Marketa Vondrousova by a break in the final set of the quarterfinals on the same No. 1 Court she played on today only to see a rain delay pause play before the Czech left-hander picked up her play to take the match. Vondrousova went on to raise the Rosewater Dish that year leaving Pegula to question what might have been.
Today, the shots flowed from Pegula over the final two sets like the right answers on a quiz.
Though Pegula hit just one more winner than Jovic—21 to 20—her versatility and comfort level from all areas of the court was evident. Showing virtually the entire shot spectrum, Pegula beat the teenager with drives down the line, drop shots and even conjured a few rainbow lobs warding off Jovic’s forays to the net.
A fired-up Jovic broke in four of Pegula’s first five service games, including reeling off eight straight points on Pegula’s serve to seal the first set.
An athletic player, who strikes with accuracy on the run and repels pace effectively, Jovic toppled 2025 Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova en route to the Queen’s Club semifinals last month. As today’s rematch with Pegula progressed, the 18-year-old Jovic’s first serve deteriorated a bit and her forehand sometimes flat-lined into net countering line shots from her more experienced opponent. Pegula converted eight of 17 break-point chances and won 25 of 48 points played on the Jovic serve.
“I think in general I didn’t serve well in the whole match,” said Jovic, who lost to Pegula for the third time on a third different surface. “In the first I got away with it because she was also serving a bit lower percentage, so I was able to break her a lot.
“I was kind of just living and dying off of being able to break serve, which she made the adjustment and she started playing with a little more spin on her serve and breaking my rhythm on the returns and making her first-serve percentage go up. Mine stayed low (smiling).
“So yeah, little disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to make better adjustments with that. Something I really need to work on.”
Snatching that one-set lead, Jovic’s biggest mistake may have been leaving the court for a bathroom break. That gave the former US Open finalist time to reflect on her play and recalibrate her game.
After scoring a three-set win over 18th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova in round three, Jovic shared she grew up looking up to Pegula after coaches and fellow players pointed out the similarities in their styles.
Trailing the teenager on the scoreboard after one set, Pegula played much more proactive tennis to take charge.
Sharpening her serve, Pegula powered out to 4-1 leads in both the second and third sets. Pegula surrendered just six points on first serve during the final two sets.
“Yeah, pretty much I had to kind of get my serve going there. She’s a very good returner,” Pegula said. “I needed to not just have a good serving day, but having a bad serving day wasn’t going to be how I was going to win the match, that’s for sure.
“Yeah, I’m happy with the way I was able to kind of readjust that and not kind of panic too much and just
reset.”
Contesting her 30th Grand Slam tournament, Pegula has a well-earned reputation as one of the sport’s cleanest ball strikers.
Throughout this fortnight, she’s been taking the ball early and firing her flat strikes sometimes force opponents to try to lift replies—or send shots splattering into the net.
Targeting the teenager’s forehand, Pegula drained running errors scoring back-to-back breaks at 15 for the 4-1 second-set lead. Though the speedy Jovic broke back then belted a forehand pass to cut the gap to 3-4, Pegula was not fazed.
On her third set point, Pegula provoked a forehand miss to level the match and force a decider after 95 minutes.
When Jovic’s first-serve percentage dipped to just 50 percent in the decider, Pegula punished that delivery winning seven of 11 points played on the Jovic first serve in the last set.
Torching her two hander for a break point, Pegula drained another forehand error to break in the second game and quickly consolidated for 3-0.
A forehand strike brought her triple match point and Pegula pumped a 110 mph ace off the sideline sealing a two hour, 12-minute victory—her third win over Jovic in as many meetings—in style.
“Everything feels pretty good, though. I can’t complain,” Pegula said. “I’m definitely very healthy right now. There’s always little things here and there but stuff that’s very manageable.
“Yeah, feeling good and try to take advantage of the fact that my body is feeling good right now.”
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