Pegula Earns 13th Three-Set Victory of 2026 to Kick off North American Swing in DC

There are two American women inside the WTA’s Top 5 and they are both excellent at winning three setters. Coco Gauff has won ten matches from a set down this year, and 15 deciding sets (15-7). 

Jessica Pegula isn’t far behind her, and she has a higher winning percentage in deciders as well. The Buffalo native improved to 13-4 in deciding sets on Thursday with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Poland’s Magdalena Frech. 

It was Pegula’s first match on hard courts since Miami, which likely explains the slow start. 

The 2019 DC champion said she had to make some changes to start the second set, and once she did the game became simpler for her. 

“I think to start the second, I kind of looked at my coach, and I kind of knew that I had to obviously change things,” she said. “One was definitely changing my serve, and then I think the second thing was just trying to play more up on the baseline.”

Pegula says the main stadium in DC plays slow and bouncy so she had to step in and be aggressive. 

“I think once I started to try to confront the ball and stand up more on the baseline, everything kind of sped up for me,” she said. “I started playing much quicker, much faster, and that’s my game. So I was able to kind of change that and execute.”

Pegula, who had not played since losing to Coco Gauff in three sets at Wimbledon, will face Anna Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals on Friday. 

The American has won four of five matches with Kalinskaya but all of their matchups have gone – you guessed it – three sets. 

“I think she plays really well against top players. I think she plays really free. I think her record against top players shows that,” Pegula said of the No.5 seed. “But I do think that our games just match up where we kind of play into each other’s.”