(Tennis news) For a second-round meeting with Patricia Maria Tig, Pegula eliminated Camila Giorgi. In the first set, the American had two break points in front but wasted both of them, allowing her opponent to even the score.

In order to advance to a 5-3 lead, Pegula broke Tig’s serve a third time. She then served out the set. The New York native only dropped one point in the second set, which she used to win the match 6-3, 6-1.

In contrast, Svitolina overcame Anna-Lena Friedsam in straight sets to go to the second round, where she faced Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a semifinalist at the 2021 French Open. The majority of the first set’s service games had the two playing pretty well.

Svitolina saved two break points when serving at 6-5 to send the set into a tie-break. But Pavlyuchenkova succeeded on her third breakpoint to win the set.

In response, Svitolina won the second set. In the third and final set, she quickly built a 4-0 lead. The next three games were won by Pavlyuchenkova, bringing the score to 4-3, but she was unable to reduce the gap. The Ukrainian managed to maintain the advantage and go on to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 after mounting a comeback.

Head-to-Head

Svitolina is 3-1 down to Pegula in their previous meetings. At the 2023 Citi Open, the American prevailed in their prior meeting in three sets.

Prediction

On paper, Pegula’s victory appeared to be very simple, but the opening set was a fierce struggle. In the meantime, Pavlyuchenkova pushed Svitolina to her limits, and the former had to tame the latter’s late surge to secure the victory.

Svitolina’s performance in the previous round was a little too erratic. She was able to win points quite quickly when she delivered a strong first serve, but she gave her opponent too many opportunities to exploit her second serve. Pegula is a rather good returner; therefore, she cannot afford to repeat the same mistake.

Svitolina’s forehand occasionally didn’t convey a sense of confidence, but her backhand more than made up for it. In order to defeat Pegula, who has a three-match winning streak over the Ukrainian, she will need every part of her game to be on point.

The American prevailed over her opponent in three sets in their most recent match, which took place in Washington a few weeks ago. Pegula is the favourite to win, so this could be another game that goes down to the wire.

Jessica Pegula to win 3 sets.

Also read: Jannik Sinner set to play Stan Wawrinka at the US Open 23