Fourth seed Jessica Pegula used her veteran savvy to outlast rising American teenager Iva Jovic on Sunday at Wimbledon, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals for the second time — matching the best result of her Wimbledon career.
The match was a messy affair early on, with the opening set featuring seven service breaks. Pegula dropped that first set — her first of the entire tournament — but she regrouped and elevated her game significantly from there against the 18-year-old Jovic.
After dropping the opening game of the second set, Pegula rattled off four consecutive games and never slowed down. Her serve became a weapon again, and she began limiting her unforced errors, putting the match firmly in her control.
By the third set, the 16th-seeded Jovic appeared to lose her fighting spirit as the 32-year-old Pegula closed things out efficiently on a sun-drenched Court One.
“That was really tough,” Pegula said following the victory. “Iva’s a great player and brings lots of energy and intensity and I just couldn’t find my serve in the first set even though I wasn’t playing badly. Luckily I started to serve better.”
Pegula, who has reached at least the quarter-final stage at all four Grand Slam tournaments, was one of five American women to make it to the last 16 at Wimbledon — the most since 2002.
Depending on the outcome of a later Sunday match between Coco Gauff and Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, Pegula could find herself facing yet another American in the quarter-finals.
