Jessica Pegula ousts No. 1 Iga Swiatek to reach US Open semis - ESPN

NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula pulled off a major upset of Iga Swiatek at the US Open, beating the No. 1-ranked woman 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday night to win a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time on her seventh try.

Her win guarantees the US Open will have multiple American men and women playing in the semifinal round, the first time that has happened since 2003 (Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick; Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati).

Swiatek served poorly in the first set and her forehand was a real problem, with 22 of her 41 unforced errors coming on that side. Pegula used terrific defense to keep forcing Swiatek to hit an extra shot.

The No. 6-seeded Pegula, a 30-year-old American, has won 14 of her past 15 matches and will make her debut appearance in the semifinals of a Slam on Thursday against unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.

Pegula repeatedly did what seemed nearly impossible to do lately against Swiatek, who counts the 2022 US Open among her five Grand Slam titles and has led the WTA rankings for most of the past 2 1/2 years: break her serve.

Entering Wednesday, Swiatek had lost just a pair of service games across four matches in the hard-court tournament, both in the first round — and she didn't even face a single break point in any of her most recent three contests.

But Pegula, whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, didn't have much trouble in that department, especially at the outset, breaking in each of Swiatek's initial two service games, which both ended with double-faults, and three of the first six.

It helped that Swiatek was unable to properly calibrate her first serves early, putting just 2 of 12 — 16.7% — in play at the start, only 36% for the opening set.

Pegu