Quick Work: Pegula Roars Into US Open Quarterfinal Return

By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, August 31, 2025
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty

NEW YORK—On Labor Day weekend, Jessica Pegula continues to make quick work of all comers.

The fourth-seeded Pegula torched talented compatriot Ann Li 6-1, 6-2 to charge into the US Open quarterfinals for the third time in the last four years. 

“Very good match I think for me today,” Pegula said. “Probably the best match, honestly, I’ve played since, like, before Wimbledon I feel like from the start to finish. So that was encouraging.

“Yeah, I was just hitting the ball, doing everything well, executing my strategy very well and, yeah, got through it pretty quick.”

Dialing up her drives from the start, Pegula terrorized Li’s serving converting six of nine break points and winning 16 of 20 points played on her opponent’s second serve.

It is Pegula’s first quarterfinal since she swept Iga Swiatek to win the Bad Homburg title on grass in June. This is Pegula’s first hard-court quarterfinal since March when she knocked off Anna Kalinskaya, Marta Kostyuk, Emma Raducanu and Alexandra Eala to reach the Miami Open final where she fell to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the 2024 Flushing Meadows final.

How sharp has the US Open finalist been in her Flushing Meadows return?

Through four tournament wins, an efficient Pegula has permitted just 17 games—winning four of eight sets at either 6-1 or 6-0.

No.4 seed Jessica Pegula is through to the quarterfinals in emphatic fashion! pic.twitter.com/y2EyKknHUt

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 31, 2025

The degree of difficulty will rise dramatically in the quarterfinals.

Next up for Pegula is a quarterfinal clash against either two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova.

A gutsy Krejcikova fought off eight match points in the second-set tiebreaker and muted a raucous crowd in Louis Armstrong Stadium fighting off doubles world No. 1 Taylor Townsend 1-6, 7-6(13), 6-3 in a three hour, four-minute epic.

“Barbora, she’s so hard to play. I was watching her match against Emma the other night,
and it’s, like, she disguises her shots to well,” Pegula said. “She’s really crafty. She changes the direction of the ball. She can serve well.

“She does everything really well, and sometimes she can be a little I think up and down in matches. Like you see kind of these stretches where she’ll just reel off multiple games and then she kind of goes down.
It’s really hard to play people like that, but it feels a little bit this year like she’s kind of doing what she’s done in the past when she’s gone deep. She’s managing the three sets really well and winning and kind of figuring out ways to win.”

Li, who upset 16th seed and former Olympic gold-medal champion Belinda Bencic in the second round, had won seven of her last eight matches, including her run to the Cleveland final earlier this month. Though the world No. 58 was playing some of her best tennis, Pegula produced a level the fourth-round debutant could not match on Arthur Ashe Stadium today.

Pegula bumped a flat backhand return winner down the line breaking again for 3-0 after nine minutes of play.

Playing with blue kinesiology tape on her left thigh, Li began to find her range in the fourth game. Flashing a forehand strike down the line, Li broke at 30 to get on the board.

Though Li hit 22 aces through her first three tournament wins, sneaking a serve past Pegula was about as easy as hurdling the chair umpire’s high seat. Pegula poured through her third break in a row extending to 4-1. 

Curling a crisp running crosscourt forehand brought Pegula double set point. Li tried to change the tempo with a slice backhand, but found the net instead. Pegula posted her fourth break to snatch the 25-minute opener.

For the fourth time in her first seven sets of this US Open, Pegula permitted fewer than two games in a set. 

Li could not defend the second serve as Pegula won 11 of 12 second-serve points in that first set.

Beaten to the punch by Pegula, Li tried to alter the rhythm of the rally again going to the slice, but sailed a follow-up backhand behind the baseline. Pegula scored her fifth break for a 3-1 second set lead after 38 minutes.

Matching the 2024 finalist in a forehand exchange helped Li register her second straight hold for 2-4. That was Li’s last stand.

Blasting a backhand return winner down the line, Pegula capped a masterful 54-minute win with a bang and an embrace of Li at net.