New York (AFP) – Jessica Pegula said a night out at an escape room helped solve the riddle of her poor form as she plotted a path to the quarter-finals of the US Open on Sunday. The American fourth seed — a beaten finalist at the US Open last year — advanced to the last eight after breezing past compatriot Ann Li 6-1, 6-2 on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
Pegula arrived in New York on the back of a dispiriting sequence of results that left her anticipating a short stay at Flushing Meadows following early round exits at WTA events in Washington, Montreal, and Cincinnati. The 31-year-old’s confidence took another dip days before the tournament, when her form was so dismal she cut short a practice session with world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
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But a night out with friends at an escape room helped her bring a relaxed approach into the tournament. “I felt terrible coming into this tournament, honestly,” Pegula said after Sunday’s 54-minute victory. “I had a practice Wednesday, I hit with Sabalenka. She killed me. I was playing terrible. Then we went out for a second hour, and I stopped halfway through the hour and was like, ‘I’m done, this isn’t good’ … So I kind of walked off the court, like, not very happy.”
A night out improved her mood though. “Went and did an escape room with my friends and had, like, two drinks and was like, I need to just chill and stop getting so frustrated and overthinking all these practices,” she said.
On Sunday, Pegula looked more like the player that ousted Iga Swiatek in last year’s US Open quarter-finals before just falling short against Sabalenka in the final as she demolished the out-matched Li. “I played her at Roland Garros this year and we had a tough two sets,” Pegula said. “When she’s serving well she’s really dangerous. But I felt she came out slow and nervous and I wanted to jump on top of that. That was my motivation the entire match.”
Pegula exploited Li’s problems on serve to coast to a win that sets up a quarter-final meeting against the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova, who outlasted Taylor Townsend in a gruelling three-setter elsewhere on Sunday. Li, ranked 58th in the world, was on the defensive from the first game, being broken immediately to hand Pegula an early advantage.
Pegula went on to break Li three more times to wrap up the first set in just 25 minutes. Li was soon in trouble in the second set, being broken in the fourth game to go 3-1 down as Pegula closed in on victory. Pegula clinched her quarter-final spot in the eighth game, blasting a backhand service return down the line to break Li to love.
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