Injury that ‘sucks’ helps propel Jessica Pegula past Iga Swiatek into US Open semi-finals

NEW YORK – Jessica Pegula credited an ill-timed injury for her victory over world No. 1 Iga Swiatek at the US Open on Sept 4, which propelled her into a maiden Grand Slam semi-final.

The sixth-ranked American defeated the 2022 champion and four-time French Open winner 6-2, 6-4 to end her run of losing six Major quarter-finals.

In doing so, she also extended her record to 14 wins in 15 matches on US hard courts this summer.

She believes that her charge into the semi-finals was aided by the effects of a rib injury which forced her to sit out the European clay-court swing, including the French Open.

The 30-year-old had already been sick earlier in the season following a dispiriting early exit from the Australian Open when she was “burnt out” with an “immune system that was kind of shot”.

“By the time I got injured, I was ready to go. Once I kind of reset and kind of got back to normal, getting injured then kind of just made me more hungry,” said Pegula.

“I was like, okay, this sucks, like, I want to be playing, like I’m ready. To be kind of set back like that, helped me come back.”

She marked her return to action by winning the grass-court title in Berlin in June.

Following second-round losses at Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, Pegula has been virtually unstoppable.

She won the Toronto title on Aug 12 and finished runner-up in Cincinnati a week later.

“Finally, I can say I’m a semi-finalist. I lost so many of these damn things,” said Pegula after her fourth career win against Swiatek.

“I thought I played a really clean match. I feel like I didn’t really do anything that bad, and was able to kind of jump on her really early and frustrate her.”

Pegula raced into a double break in the first set as Swiatek was plagued by mistakes.

By the end of the opener, Swiatek had hit just three winners and committed 19 unforced errors as her game fell apart under the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights.

It was a dramatic slump for the 23-year-old top seed, who had not faced a single break point in her three preceding matches.

Pegula turned the screw for a 2-1 lead in the second before Swiatek retrieved the break. But the Polish star could not capitalise and was broken again when a forehand error handed Pegula a 4-3 edge.

The American claimed victory on a third match point when Swiatek went wide again for her 41st and final unforced error of the night.

“I didn’t really understand why my serve wasn’t working. It was hard for me to find, like, a proper solution for that. Today I just made too many mistakes,” said Swiatek.

“I’m always trying to have lower expectations. I feel like when I have high expectations, I never perform well. But it’s hard to have low expectations when everybody is expecting something from you.”

Second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will face American world No. 12 Emma Navarro in the semi-finals on Sept 5, while Pegula takes on Karolina Muchova in the other last-four clash.

World No. 52 Muchova continued her renaissance after a long injury layoff with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Beatriz Haddad Maia.

In only her sixth tournament back on tour, the Czech looked sharp as she grabbed a 4-0 lead over the 21st-ranked Haddad Maia before taking the opening set.

The Brazilian improved in the second set and the players exchanged breaks before Muchova, after having the physio and doctor at her chair, held to reach 5-3 before taking advantage of new balls and sealing victory with an ace.

“I played good in the key points, meaning when I had a breakpoint or I was serving for a game, I always pulled out a good shot,” said Muchova.

“I’m happy that I managed it in two sets again. I’m fighting (a) bug a little bit. I’m a little sick.”

Off the court, Yulia Putintseva has apologised after criticism on social media for appearing to take no notice of a ball girl at the US Open, saying she did not intend to humiliate anyone with her actions.

Videos posted on social media seemed to show the 29-year-old ignoring the ball girl, who was tossing balls in the 30th seed’s direction during her 6-3, 6-4 loss to Jasmine Paolini in a third-round match on Aug 31.

The video was shared by six-time Major winner Boris Becker, who wrote in a caption: “Who does Putintseva think she is... Terrible behaviour towards the ball girl!!!”

Putintseva, who also apologised on Sept 1, explained in an Instagram post, saying: “It’s kind of scary the way the world can judge someone from just a three-second video, that someone post from one side, without seeing the rest on what was really happening.

“I was just playing tennis and lost a tough game, which was very close (in my opinion) to turn that match around.

“At this time the girl was (giving) me the ball, which I didn’t even notice or so, because I was deep in my thoughts... I was not trying to humiliate her (or anyone).” reuters, AFP