World No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland booked a spot in her third Grand Slam semifinal of the year with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over No.8 seed Jessica Pegula of the United States in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night.
Top seed Swiatek reached the semifinals at the Australian Open to start the Grand Slam season (losing to Danielle Collins) before winning her second Roland Garros title in the last three years.
No.1: Swiatek is the first No.1 seed to reach the US Open women's singles semifinals since Serena Williams in 2016. She completed this year's US Open semifinal lineup after moving past American No.1 Pegula in 1 hour and 51 minutes.
55: Swiatek has now won 55 matches already in 2022. The last player to collect more match-wins in a single season was Ashleigh Barty, who won 57 matches in 2019.
6: Swiatek has garnered six WTA singles titles in her superb 2022 thus far. Another title would make Swiatek the first player to win seven or more titles in a single season since Serena Williams in 2014.
3: Swiatek dropped her first meeting with Pegula at 2019 Washington, D.C., and Pegula went all the way to her first WTA singles title that week.
But Swiatek has now gotten her revenge three times over in 2022, with her latest victory added to this year’s wins over Pegula at Miami and Roland Garros.
16 of 18: On Wednesday night, Pegula led by an early break and was up 3-2, 30-0, but the American fired four straight unforced errors from there to cede the break back to Swiatek. That was all the Pole needed to surge back, and she won 16 of the last 18 points in the first set.
22: In the topsy-turvy second set, each player held serve only once, and Swiatek failed to serve out the match at 5-4 and 6-5. The pair exchanged winners down the stretch of the decisive tiebreak, and Swiatek at last got to double match point at 6-4 with a backhand strike.
Swiatek needed only one match point to wrap up the win, aiming a forehand down the line to force an error from Pegula. Swiatek had 22 winners in the clash to Pegula's 14, and she finished with only three more unforced errors than the American.
61%: In a match that increasingly favored the returner as it wore on, Swiatek won 61 percent of return points while Pegula won 50 percent. Swiatek converted 7 of 11 break points while Pegula was also a solid 6-for-10.
3-1: On Thursday night, Swiatek will take on No.6 seed Aryna Sabalenka, with each of them vying for a spot in their first US Open final.
Swiatek leads their head-to-head 3-1. Sabalenka won their first meeting at last year's WTA Finals. But, just as she had against Pegula, Swiatek has avenged that defeat with three wins over Sabalenka during the World No.1's sizzling 2022 season.
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