(Tennis news) Pegula advanced to the third round, where she faced the 26th seed Elina Svitolina, by defeating Camila Giorgi and Patricia Maria Tig in straight sets. The American gained an advantage by breaking serve in the fifth game, and she went on to win the game as well as the set.
For the majority of the second set, the two were evenly matched. Pegula was serving to remain in the set at 5-4 when Svitolina made her move by breaking Pegula’s serve to win the set and tie the match.
Pegula swiftly recovered to dominate the third set and the match as a whole. She won the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and advanced to the fourth round for the second year in a row with a run of five straight games.
Keys, on the other hand, defeated Yanina Wickmayer and Arantxa Rus to advance to the third round and meet 14th seed Liudmila Samsonova. In the final game of the opening set, the American made a mistake that caused her to lose control of the situation.
However, Keys ultimately proved to be too strong for Samsonova. In the following two sets, she increased her level even more and broke the Russian’s service twice to seal a comeback victory of 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
Head-to-Head
Keys was outscored 1-0 by Pegula in their matchup. At the San Diego Open in 2022, she defeated him in straight sets.
Predictions
In the previous round, it took both competitors three sets to finish the task. Pegula served nine aces and won 75% of her points on the first serve. She had a total of 31 successful swings and four more unforced mistakes.
Keys made the same amount of winners as Pegula, but her error rate was slightly lower. Her aggressive style of tennis frequently overwhelms the opponent on the other side of the net if the former is in the zone.
Although Pegula’s shots don’t have the same raw power as Keys’, she still smashes her groundstrokes with a lot of depth and they are difficult to handle. Although her fellow American is equally capable of turning it up on serve when it matters, the 2017 US Open runner-up has the superior serve.
Keys has everything it takes to make this a tough battle, and if she plays well, she might even win. Pegula, however, will be favoured to make further progress because he has been the more reliable performer throughout the season.
Pegula to win in 3 sets.
