Jessica Pegula claimed to have made statement at the US Open, ‘the rest of the locker room will be seeing that’

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Jessica Pegula continues to impress in New York as she looks to return to the championship match.

12 months ago, Pegula lost 5-7, 5-7, to Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open final.

Returning with a point to prove, Pegula made light work of her first four opponents, defeating Mayar Sherif, Anna Blinkova, Victoria Azarenka, and Ann Li, without dropping a set.

Advancing to the quarterfinals, the world number four took on two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova.

In straight sets, Pegula eased past Krejcikova, 6-3, 6-3, to advance to the US Open semis for the second year in a row.

Reacting to the 31-year-old’s performance, Pegula’s fellow American, Ryan Harrison, claimed she had made a statement to her rivals.

Ryan Harrison believes the ‘rest of the locker room’ will have seen Jessica Pegula’s dominant win

Speaking to Sky Sports in the aftermath of Pegula’s quarterfinal win, Harrison shared his thoughts.

“When you see someone dominating a player who has two Grand Slam titles, a hall-of-fame calibre player, that’s the sort of stuff that opens your eyes, and the rest of the locker room will be seeing that as well,” he said.

Krejcikova has indeed enjoyed a ‘hall-of-fame’ career, winning nine Grand Slam titles across singles and doubles.

Barbora Krejcikova’s Grand Slam titles

• 2018 French Open (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2018 Wimbledon (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2021 Australian Open (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2021 French Open (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2021 French Open
• 2022 Australian Open (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2022 Wimbledon (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2022 US Open (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2023 Australian Open (Doubles w/Katerina Siniakova)
• 2024 Wimbledon

Taking down an opponent with such a pedigree can only be good news for Pegula, who was suitably pleased during her post-match interview.

“I think I’ve been playing some very good tennis, I’ve just been playing solid, having quick starts, I really wanted to do that today, especially against someone like her who is very dangerous,” she said.

“Even at the end there I got really tight. She hit some really good returns when I was serving at 4-1, then we all saw what she did against Taylor [Townsend], so I was happy that we were done.”

Krejcikova saved eight match points in her fourth-round win over Taylor Townsend to keep her US Open dreams alive, but couldn’t repeat the feat against Pegula, as she fell in straight sets.

Now a cool customer on the sport’s biggest stages, Pegula shared her thoughts on the crowd at Flushing Meadows.

“I feel like I’m really comfortable, it’s crazy to look now and think that I’m comfortable playing on big courts, in big matches with the craziest crowd against the best players,” she said.

“It’s something that ten years ago, I never thought I’d be good at this, but I guess I am.”

Getting better as the tournament progresses, Pegula will now prepare to play Sabalenka or Marketa Vondrousova in the semifinals.

Jessica Pegula’s head-to-head record against Aryna Sabalenka and Marketa Vondrousova

Pegula and Sabalenka have played nine matches on the WTA Tour, as the American trails the head-to-head 2-7.

Sabalenka has won their previous three meetings, all to clinch ‘big’ titles on North American hard courts.

Should the Belarusian advance past Vondrousova, Pegula would surely jump at the chance to pick up a rare win over the world number one in her home country.

Pegula hasn’t played Vondrousova quite so often in her career to date, and is level with the Czech star in the head-to-head 1-1.

After Vondrousova won their first match en route to the Wimbledon title in 2023, Pegula got her revenge at Roland Garros earlier this year, securing the three-set win.

It remains to be seen who Pegula will play in the semis, but if she can perform as well as she did against Krejcikova, it may not matter…