Jessica Pegula has breezed into the third round of the Australian Open after beating McCartney Kessler 6-0, 6-2.
Pegula took less than one hour to knock out Kessler, who she also played doubles with this year in Melbourne.
The American pair did, however, fall in the first round of the Australian Open, losing to Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani.
While Pegula will now turn her focus to her singles clash with Oksana Selekhmeteva, she was tasked with sharing the reaction between her and Kessler when they learned they would be playing each other so early at the event.
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Jessica Pegula wins ‘tricky’ match against doubles partner McCartney Kessler
WTA number six Pegula said of WTA number 37 Kessler: “Yeah, it’s been cool to see her come up so quickly.
“I remember when I first started with my coach, Mark Merklein, or one of my coaches, he went to watch her play when she was playing quallies of a grass court tournament, and it was right when we just started.
“He told me he coached her brother at Florida, and there was a really cool connection there. She just kind of started on tour and was starting to do pretty well but was still playing quallies of a lot of these events.
“She kind of rose up pretty quickly. It’s been fun to see how well she’s doing. Super nice. Got to play BJK with her, got to know her a little bit more. Her husband is really nice. Her brother, coach, is really nice. Nothing but good things to say about them.
“Always tricky when you have to play someone that you know and that you like and also that you’re playing doubles with.
“Yeah, I said on court that we had a bunch of blunders trying to play doubles together. Don’t ask me why, but it was, like, there was a miscommunication one time.
“One time I thought we signed in, but we didn’t sign in. Actually in Brisbane we signed in and didn’t get in.
“So there was, like, a lot of these things, and then finally we got to play with each other. We’re in the draw, we’re all good, and everyone is good to play, and we play each other second round.
“That part was just, yeah, kind of just unfortunate, I guess, because, you know, we obviously want to see each other do well separately in singles, not when we have to play each other.”
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Jessica Pegula helps USA match 11-year Australian Open record
Pegula certainly isn’t the only American woman impressing in the early stages of this year’s Australian Open.
In fact, the USA have become the first nation with seven players to reach the third round of the Grand Slam in women’s singles since they achieved the feat in 2015.
That is according to OptaAce, with Pegula joined by Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova, Iva Jovic, Hailey Baptiste and Peyton Stearns.
But as the draw progresses the numbers are set to dwindle, especially with Anisimova taking on Stearns in the third round.
More significant, however, is a potential round of 16 encounter between Pegula and defending champion Keys.
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