'A huge momentum change' - How racquet change sparked Iga Swiatek win over Jessica Pegula at US Open

Was an early racquet change the key to Iga Swiatek beating Jessica Pegula and making the US Open semi-finals? Ninth seed Pegula had the better of the early exchanges of the match and broke to lead 3-2. Ad She was 30-0 up in the next game when Swiatek opted to switch racquets. US OpenSwiatek holds her nerve to battle past Pegula and march into semi-finals7 HOURS AGO Swiatek then reeled off four points in a row to break and only dropped two more points in the set.

“It was definitely a huge momentum change,” said Pegula, who was the last American left in the women’s draw. “I think it helped her a lot. So it was a good move by her.

She knew the ball was flying on her a little bit and needed to change racquets. Swiatek beats Pegula to make semi-finals Sabalenka overcomes Pliskova to advance “Her ball was landing a little shorter. I felt like I wasn't maybe moving up to it.

I just made a few stupid errors. She started playing a little bit better. I was just going for too much.

The games kind of flew by, went really quickly. Next thing I knew, I lost the set 6-3. “I was used to her making errors.

She maybe hit a couple balls, and I think I was just thrown off with the rhythm. Then I started missing everything for literally the rest of the set. So yeah, I broke her, then just totally lost like every single ball, felt like I was missing every single ball.” Reflecting on her decision, world No.

1 Swiatek said: “Today I realised that I need extra help from the racquet and the string itself because Jessie is such a tough opponent that you can just lose two more points. I realised that it may be better to switch racquets even though I'm only switching after the ball change. “I think it helped me a lot.