Top seed Swiatek battles past Pegula and into last four

Iga Swiatek clicked into gear as she stayed on course for a second grand slam title of the season by battling past Jessica Pegula and into the semi-finals of the US Open.

The world number one and French Open champion is the only player left in either of the singles draws who has previously lifted a slam trophy and she raised her level in a 6-3 7-6 (4) victory over American Pegula.

Both players struggled to hold serve and Swiatek was twice broken serving for the match but she came through the tie-break to set up a clash with Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday.

Swiatek has not been at her best since her 37-match winning run came to an end at Wimbledon, and she said: "I feel like it just clicked. I was able today to use my intuition a little bit more.

"I didn't force myself to do every step right, all this technical stuff that I’ve been working on. It was more natural today. That was nice because I didn’t have thousands of things to improve in my head."

Eighth seed Pegula has been a rare consistent performer in the top 10 this season and this was her third major quarter-final of the year but she is yet to go further.

She made the first move in the opening set with a break for 3-2 but let Swiatek back in from 30-0 in the next game and the Pole was ruthless, dropping just two more points in the set.

The second set was a story of constant swings in momentum, with Swiatek, who was unhappy to be given a time violation in the fifth game, breaking serve five times only to be pegged back each time.

Pegula was given a warning for smacking a ball into the stands in frustration after another break for 4-3, while Swiatek had the most fortunate of net cords to move 5-4 ahead.

The pair were dragging each other all around the vast expanses of Arthur Ashe