WASHINGTON — No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula advanced to the quarter-finals of at the Mubadala Citi DC Open by defeating Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 in Washington.
No. 2 seed Caroline Garcia of France won’t be joining Pegula in the quarters.
Pegula, the fourth-ranked player in the world, is seeking her second title in Washington after winning her maiden WTA title there in 2019.
She broke Stearns’ serve six times in 13 opportunities and won a whopping 24 of 39 first-return points (61.5 per cent).
Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk defeated Garcia 6-2, 6-3 in just 64 minutes.
Playing as the top seed in Washington DC for the second consecutive year, Pegula is bidding to win her first tournament of the season and third of her career this week.
“I won my first title here with my coach in our first week together and since then we’ve just been rising and it’s been an awesome journey,” Pegula said. “That was a very big turning point for me.”
Pegula’s two career titles have both come on North American hard courts. In addition to winning her first title in Washington four years ago, Pegula captured the biggest trophy of her career last fall at the WTA 1000 in Guadalajara.
Stearns earned her main-draw slot as a lucky loser taking Sofia Kenin’s place in the draw. The powerful 21-year-old has surged up the rankings over the last eight months.
This time last year, Stearns was just beginning her professional career after leading the University of Texas to their second-straight NCAA team championship and becoming the first player in program history to capture the NCAA Singles title.
In just her ninth career main-draw appearance on the Hologic WTA Tour, Stearns came into the tournament ranked No.59. She defeated Poland’s Magdalena French in the first round.
In her first meeting against Pegula, Stearns struggled to break through the top-ranked American’s baseline consistency.
Playing her first tournament since posting her best result at Wimbledon last month, Pegula showed little sign of rust as she steadily outworked Stearns for the 1-hour and 23-minute match.
Pegula broke Stearns’ serve six times and hit 12 winners to 19 unforced errors. Stearns hit 9 winners to 29 unforced errors.
As she looks to make her fifth semi-final of the season and first since Charleston, Pegula brings a 2-1 head-to-head advantage into her quarterfinal against Svitolina.
The Ukrainian is in the midst of an incredible resurgence, having made the Roland Garros quarter-finals and defeating No.1 Iga Swiatek en route to the Wimbledon semi-finals.
Svitolina comes into the match off two confident wins over former No.1 Victoria Azarenka and No.11 Daria Kasatkina.
“She’s an amazing competitor, obviously an amazing player,” Pegula said. “What she’s done after coming back after giving birth and everything that her country is going through, it’s been really amazing.
“I feel like she’s coming back with a new perspective, a new outlook, and that’s showing on court. She’s competing really, really hard and hasn’t really seemed to skip a beat. It’s going to be really tough.”
Kostyuk claimed a spot in her fourth quarterfinal of the year by dispatching World No.6 Garcia in just 64 minutes of play on Stadium Court in the American capital city. It was Kostyuk’s first win over Garcia in their three career meetings.
“I was preparing for this match, as it was a difficult and important match,” Kostyuk said afterwards. “I’m glad everything worked out, and I’m happy to be in the quarterfinals.”
Kostyuk has now won her last two matches against Top 10 opposition, having also upset Maria Sakkari in the first round of Wimbledon last month. Prior to her Wimbledon win over Sakkari, Kostyuk was 0-14 against Top 10 players.
“I gained a lot of confidence out of that [Sakkari] match, because I’d been hunting the Top 10 win for a long time,” Kostyuk said. “Once I [got] it, it kind of gave me the boost and the belief that I can win these kind of matches. Hopefully it’s going to stay like this for a long time.”
The 21-year-old Kostyuk has posted numerous other milestones already this season. She currently sits at a career-high ranking of No.34, and she won her first career Hologic WTA Tour singles title in Austin, Texas this March.
One late match in Washington will pit fourth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece against Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Fourth seed Linda Noskova rallied past India’s Ankita Raina 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 in her native Czech Republic.
Noskova, who had to overcome 10 double faults and a measly 2-for-9 showing in break points saved, is the highest seed standing in Prague after the top three seeds all lost in the first round.
No. 6 seed Alize Cornet of France needed three hours and 17 minutes to beat Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-4. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia ousted ninth seed Xiyu Wang of China 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch led 4-0 when Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer retired just 18 minutes into their match. Japan’s Nao Hibino and the Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova also advanced to the quarter-finals.
