NEW YORK – Jessica Pegula walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday looking every inch a contender. Half an hour later, she looked in trouble.
Blown away 6-1 in a one-sided opening set by Leylah Fernandez, the third seed teetered on the edge of an early exit. The Canadian left-hander, back on the court where her 2021 fairytale had fallen just short in the final, came out swinging and did not miss much. Pegula barely had time to breathe, let alone build any rhythm.
Then the match turned. Slowly at first. Then decisively.
Fernandez flies, Pegula staggers
From the first ball, Fernandez owned the baseline. She took the ball early, drove Pegula back with heavy, deep groundstrokes and toyed with the pace and angles, dragging the American into uncomfortable positions. Pegula, a U.S. Open runner-up in 2024 and one of the pre-tournament favourites, looked flat and a step slow.
The 23-year-old Canadian ripped through the opener in just 30 minutes, her left-handed aggression dictating almost every rally. Pegula’s serve offered little protection; her forehand leaked errors. Fernandez, feeding off the stage that had once carried her to a final against Emma Raducanu, looked ready to launch another run.
Pegula needed a foothold. Any foothold.
The shift in the second set
She found it midway through the second.
At 3-2, Pegula finally sank her teeth into a return game, breaking Fernandez in the sixth to nudge in front. It wasn’t spectacular tennis, but it was stubborn. She tightened her margins, forced Fernandez to hit one more ball, and the errors began to creep in on the Canadian’s side.
The next game became a test of nerve. Pegula faced pressure on serve, but she dug out a crucial hold, refusing to let Fernandez snatch back the momentum. The Canadian did mount a push, probing for a way back into the set, yet Pegula held her line and closed it out 6-4 to level the match.
From a rout, it had become a contest. From there, experience started to matter.
Veteran composure in the decider
At 32, Pegula has seen enough chaos on big courts not to panic. Early in the third set, that composure kept her alive. She stared down break points, held firm, and sent a clear message: this was not going to slip away easily.
The pressure told on Fernandez.
With Pegula up 2-1, the Canadian faltered. A routine shot drifted wide to hand the American the break for 3-1, and the mood inside Ashe shifted. Pegula, now reading the Fernandez patterns, stepped inside the baseline more often, using her own depth to flip the rallies and pin the younger player back.
From there, she did not look back. The American eased through her service games, taking the air out of Fernandez’s attack. When the chance to close arrived, Pegula finished with authority, sealing a 1-6 6-4 6-3 victory at the net with a crisp backhand volley winner on match point.
Cirstea next – and room to improve
The win keeps Pegula’s pursuit of a first Grand Slam title alive and sends her into the fourth round at Flushing Meadows, where she will face Sorana Cirstea. She will know she cannot afford another start as sluggish as this one, not deep in the second week of a major.
But on a day when the match threatened to run away from her, Pegula found the qualities that mark a genuine contender: resilience under fire, clarity under pressure, and the nerve to close when it counts.
