Jessica Pegula is the highest-ranked player left in the Australian Open main draw but underlines that Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur’s exits don’t mean really much since she still has to go out and earn the title. Iga Swiatek, seeded at No 1, suffered a surprise Australian Open round-of-16 defeat to reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
Meanwhile, second-seeded Jabeur was beaten by Marketa Vondrousova in the second round. Pegula, who defeated Barbora Krejcikova 7-5 6-2 to reach the quarterfinal, is now the highest-seed alive in the tournament. “It’s an interesting feeling, I guess.
I still don’t really feel like that. I mean, I look at the draw and there’s still girls—today, she won the French Open, you have Rybakina who won Wimbledon last year, you have Vika who does really well here, Caroline won the championships.
It doesn’t really feel like I’m the highest left, even though I guess that’s a cool stat. It feels like there’s still a long ways to go, to be honest,” Pegula said, per tennis.com.
Pegula making progress at the Australian Open
On Sunday, Pegula saw off 2021 French Open champion Krejcikova in straight sets.
Pegula missed out on two set points in the ninth game and failed to serve out for the first set in the 10th game, but broke Krejcikova again in the 11th game and served out for the opener in the following game. In the second set, Pegula lost her serve once but broke Krejcikova three times to complete a two-set win.
“It was a really good match. I thought it was really high level, first set especially. Got a little tricky there trying to close that first set out—had some set points, a weird point where I, like, probably should have moved in, but I didn’t know if she got it or not.
I was messing around. It’s tough when you play someone that has a lot of expereince, that it can flip a match. I’m glad that I was able to fight and win that first set, then kind of go on a roll from there,” Pegula reflected. In her next match, Pegula plays against Victoria Azarenka.
