Jessica Pegula has praised her fellow American Iva Jovic after winning their round of 16 clash at Wimbledon.
Pegula is now into the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the second time following her 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jovic.
The duo battled it out on Court 1 for two hours and 12 minutes, with the former producing a fantastic fightback to come out on top.
Fourth seed Pegula has since given her verdict on Jovic, who was the 16th seed at Wimbledon before her fourth round exit.
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Jessica Pegula praises Iva Jovic after beating her at Wimbledon
Speaking on court after the match, Pegula said of her meeting with the 18-year-old: “Yeah that was really tough.
“I mean I knew Iva’s a great player, she’s solidified herself as a top player, has a lot of energy, very intense from the start.
“And I felt like I just couldn’t find my serve in the first set. But I kept telling myself, I wasn’t playing that bad, I was still breaking quite a bit.
“So I just needed to kind of find my serve and figure it out. I’ve worked so hard on that over the last year or so, so I just really had to trust that.
“And then luckily I started serving a little bit better, and I think my intensity picked up. There were a lot of really close games there at the end.
“I mean, I felt like honestly it could have gone either way, but I just kept the intensity every single point.”
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Pegula further discussed the youngster when asked if she is concerned about her next opponent at the Grand Slam.
Facing either Coco Gauff or Belinda Bencic next, she said: “Yeah I mean to me it doesn’t matter. Everyone just keeps getting better and better.
“They’re playing themselves more and more into the tournament. You’re seeing some really tough matchups. I think especially in our section I feel like it’s really, really tough.
“And Iva is a great grass-court player, so I think it was great to get through a really, really hard match today against a good player to get ready for the next round. But it will be a new day.”
Jessica Pegula says she is great at handling her emotions on court
Jovic has enjoyed a superb and rapid rise on the WTA Tour, with the teenager currently in her career-high rank of 16th.
But world number four Pegula used all of her experience to grind out a hard-fought win, with the 32-year-old also asked how professional athletes are able to produce such turnarounds.
“I have no idea,” she replied, laughing. “I think we just get kind of thrown into it, and we either figure it out or we don’t.
“And that’s the beauty of this sport, is that you come out on this court, you either succeed or you fail at it, but either way I think you always are trying to learn and push yourself.
“I think I do a good job of always keeping my emotions in check and trying to not waste too much energy on being overly negative or even overly positive.
“Even at the end, I was starting to try to keep my energy up, but at the same time not get too hyped up and go for too many big shots and think that I was in the clear.
“It was a little windy out here, I felt better on the side with the wind, I kept telling myself just do your best you can against the wind, try to hold serve, you have to be a little bit smarter.
“And then I was just playing games with myself back and forth between change of ends and certain points.”
Pegula’s mental strength has been key to her success over the years, although the American has yet to claim a Grand Slam title.
But she might just be confident of a maiden trophy at Wimbledon this year given her ability on the surface, which has been epitomized by her results so far.
She dropped her very first set of the tournament against Jovic following straight-set wins over Darja Vidmanova, Sara Sorribes and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
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