Top-seeded Pegula rallies to reach Charleston Open quarterfinals

CHARLESTON: Top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost 10 straight games and trailed 4-0 in the final set before rallying Thursday to reach the Charleston Open quarterfinals.

Pegula, an American ranked No. 3 in the world, led the top four seeds including No. 4 seed and defending champion Belinda Bencic, into the round of eight in the season’s first clay-court tournament.

No match was the equal of Pegula’s fight with Irina-Camelia Begu, who was down 4-0 in the second set and two games away from a quick exit until finding her game.

Begu, the 15th seed, strung together a 10-game win streak to turn things around. Pegula dug in to win the final six game and the exhausting match.

That was a pretty crazy match,” Pegula said.

No doubt. Pegula will try to find more consistency against 12th-seeded Paula Badosa, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Diana Snaider, for a spot in Saturday’s semifinals.

Others moving on were No. 2 seed Ons Jabeur, No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina and Bencic, who topped Jabeur to win last year’s event on the Charleston’s green clay.

Jabeur topped Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 7-5; Kasatkina defeated Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-6 (3); and Bencic bounced back after losing to opening set to oust Shelby Rogers 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Pegula didn’t totally understand how things went so wrong, then turned right again.

“What was going through my mind is, ‘I can’t believe I’ve lost six games in a row, seven games in a row, eight, nine, 10,’” she said.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve been up like that and consecutively lost like that many games as well,” she continued, “so I was just frustrated, but was able to relax and played a pretty good game (down 4-0 in the third).”

Pegula thought is she could stop Begu’s winning streak, she could come back.