|
Pegula, seeded third, never trailed in a
contest where she won 80% of her first serve points and broke
Tig's serve six times.
Next up for the Buffalo native is Ukrainian Svitolina, who came
from behind to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia earlier
in the day.
Pegula edged Svitolina in a three-set battle in Washington D.C.
earlier this month and holds a 3-1 advantage in their career
meetings.
"Every single match we play is just a really good battle,"
Pegula said.
"I feel like we play to each other's games where we make each
other play better and we always have really great matches."
Svitolina returned in April following the birth of her daughter
and Pegula said she had already got back to top form.
"It's great to see her back, playing at such a high level so
quickly. I just played her a few weeks ago so it's going to be
very tough," she said.
Pegula took Arthur Ashe Stadium court after defending men's
champion Carlos Alcaraz won his second-round match and said she
is starting to feel comfortable on the sport's biggest stage.
"I never thought that I would be getting used to Ashe, but
somehow I am," she said.
"But it's hard to follow Carlos. It's a tough act to follow,
man."
Earlier, Russian Daria Kasatkina battled back to defeat American
Sofia Kenin 2-6 6-4 6-4 and reach the third round.
The 13th seed looked to be heading out of the tournament after
Kenin cruised through the first set and took a 3-1 lead in the
second.
But she settled in from there, breaking Kenin for 3-3 and again
to level the contest at a set apiece.
Kenin, a former Grand Slam champion now ranked number 101 in the
world, broke in the opening game of the decider but was broken
right back in a match that featured 14 total breaks of serve.
Kasatkina and Kenin have now split their four career meetings.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
|
