MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — After three previous losses in Australian Open quarterfinals, Jessica Pegula defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 7-6 (1) on Wednesday to advance to the final four at Melbourne Park for the first time.
It marked Pegula’s 14th win in her past 15 matches against fellow American opponents, continuing her strong run of domestic dominance.
In the earlier quarterfinal at Rod Laver Arena, Elena Rybakina defeated Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 to prevent the Polish player from completing a career Grand Slam of singles titles. Pegula will play Rybakina in one semifinal on Thursday, while top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will play Elina Svitolina in the other.
Pegula also beat Madison Keys, another American and the defending champion, in her previous match to advance to the quarterfinals.
Pegula is looking for her first Grand Slam title while Rybakina is after her second after winning Wimbledon in 2022.
Pegula was almost perfect in winning the first set and closed it out with an ace. The second set was much closer with each breaking the other twice.
“I’ve been waiting for the time when I can kind of break through,” Pegula said of her semifinal appearance. “I feel like I really play some good tennis here and I like the conditions.”
Pegula said she knew Anisimova would step up her play in the second set.
“I felt like I could win the rallies and I could put pressure on her serves,” Pegula said. “I just told myself to gear right back up. You’ve got to win the tiebreak unless you want to go to a third set and I really didn’t want to.”
Rybakina and Pegula are 3-3 in head-to-head play.
Swiatek is a four-time French Open champion and has won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. She was trying to become the 11th woman to complete a career Grand Slam.
The first set took an hour and Rybakina broke Swiatek in the final game. The second was almost the opposite.
Rybakina, who was born in Russia but represents Kazakhstan, broke her Polish opponent twice to start the set and moved to a 3-0 lead. She served two aces to go ahead 4-1, broke in the sixth game and finished the match with an ace.
The two played each other five times last season.
“We know each other pretty well,” Rybakina said. “In the first set for both of us, the first serve was not really working so we were trying to step in on the second serve and put pressure on the other.
“In the second I just started to play more freely and served better,” Rybakina added. “For now the serve is really helping, so hopefully I can continue like this.”
Rybakina spoke for most players about the grind of the Grand Slam tournaments — two weeks of trying to stay focused.
“There is always, like, challenging days,’ she said, ”You can play indoor, you can play outdoor, sun, it can be night match. So all these conditions a bit tricky. Also, how quick you can adapt to these circumstances.”
“When it’s the first final and you go so far in the tournament, of course you are more emotional,” she added.
The final two men’s quarterfinals are also on tap for Wednesday with Lorenzo Musetti playing 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton up against two-time defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner.
The winners will play each other in the semifinals. No. 1-ranked Carlos Alcaraz will face Alexander Zverev in the other semifinal on Friday.
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