Co-favorite Swiatek fails at the US Open

Iga Swiatek lay on her back in the changing room with tears in her eyes and could hardly believe her quarter-final exit at the US Open. The world number one from Poland suffered a surprisingly clear defeat against Jessica Pegula in 88 minutes with 2:6, 4:6.

“It wasn’t a good performance from me today,” admitted the 23-year-old 2022 winner. “I really don’t understand why my serve didn’t work. I didn’t find a solution for it.”

Gymnastics superstar Biles cheers in the stands

Pegula fueled US tennis fans’ hopes of a home victory in front of gymnastics superstar Simone Biles, who was sitting in the VIP box, and reached a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time in her career. “I finally did it and can finally say: semifinalist,” said Pegula. She had previously lost six times in the quarterfinals of one of the four major tournaments. “I’m so glad you can’t ask me anymore if I’ll make it to the semifinals.”

The New York native will now face Czech Karolina Muchova on Thursday evening (local time), who has also not lost a set in the tournament so far. “She is so good, talented. She has a lot of experience, so I have to show my best tennis,” said Pegula.

The other semi-finals will be contested by world number two Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus and the American Emma Navarro. Last year, the US crowd favorite Coco Gauff won the title.

Swiatek keeps messing up with his forehand

However, Swiatek missed the chance to win her sixth Grand Slam title. The 23-year-olds started weakly and quickly fell behind 0:4. After just 37 minutes, Pegula had won the first set.

In the second set, Swiatek continued to make minor errors, especially with her forehand. After the break to 3:4, she hit the net angrily with her racket. Her final attempt to fight back came too late, and the Pole made a total of 41 unforced errors.

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