FLUSHING, NEW YORK — No one expected any surprises in the US Open women’s quarterfinals on Wednesday night. No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula’s clean, flat hitting is damaging enough for most opponents on the tour, but it historically doesn’t work against top-ranked Iga Swiatek and her terrifying wall of topspin. While Pegula managed to claw her way into a one-sided contest last season, winning the two meetings, Swiatek ended the year with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Pegula that lasted 59 minutes and gave her a win at the WTA Finals. They haven’t played each other since then. Nothing in the way Swiatek has played on hard courts this season suggested she would lose 6-2, 6-4
Aside from a little struggle in the first round, this US Open was a businesslike affair for Swiatek: skillfully outplaying much-improved opponents and lower-seeded players. She handled her service games with ease, winning a good chunk of first serves, supporting them from the baseline, and facing zero break points in her last three matches. But Swiatek’s service struggles took her out of contention in the first set. She put only a third of her first serves into play, and double-faulted twice. Pegula broke serve twice and took a 4-0 lead that proved unassailable. Then the world No. 1 took the mandatory, momentum-killing “bathroom” break. While plenty of players have used this strategy, it’s perhaps a little more obvious than Swiatek, who has a variety of tactics to slow down the pace of play. (Her usual method is to hold the racket to delay the server, which Danielle Collins has adopted Memorable objection (At the Paris Olympics.) Sometimes controlling the pace of a match is one way Swiatek follows in the footsteps of her idol, Rafael Nadal.
