Pegula battles past Cocciaretto in another Charleston three-setter
Jessica Pegula’s title protection on the Credit One Charleston Open remains to be alive, although a easy match continued to elude the No. 1 seed in the third spherical on Thursday. Twenty-four hours after holding off Yulia Putintseva in a 3-hour, 10-minute marathon, Pegula wanted to return from 4-1 down in the third set to flee No. 14 seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(1) in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Charleston: Scores | Draws | Order of play
The American was two factors from defeat down 5-4 in the third set, however from 6-5 down reeled off 11 of the final 12 factors of the match to advance to her tenth consecutive quarterfinal on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. Pegula’s final loss earlier than the final eight of a match was to Magda Linette in the Cincinnati third spherical final August.
The outcome additionally strengthened Pegula’s ever-impressive third-set statistics even additional. She’s now 8-1 in three-set matches in 2026, and 17-4 because the US Open.
“It was a challenge, she was playing really well,” Pegula stated in her on-court interview. “She beat me the final time we performed, so there was a little bit of a psychological factor too, however I used to be capable of serve rather well, I believe, on the finish. And then I simply held my nerve…
“I found a couple of good patterns — I was hitting my backhand pretty well, and I just wanted to stick with what felt good at the moment. That was my backhand down the line, I think I came up with some big ones at the end that kind of saved me.”
Pegula will subsequent face No. 7 seed Diana Shnaider, who raced past No. 9 seed Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 6-0 in 1 hour and 25 minutes — a match that was tighter and higher-quality than the scoreline suggests, with all however one sport in the second set going to a minimum of 30-30. An outstanding forehand on the run from Shnaider to interrupt for 5-3 in the primary set was top-of-the-line pictures of the match so far. Pegula holds a 2-0 head-to-head lead over Shnaider, having defeated her in the 2024 Toronto semifinals and US Open fourth spherical.
Set one: A free-hitting Cocciaretto dominates
Ten months in the past, Cocciaretto was ranked No. 122 after she’d spent 2024 recovering from a bout of mycoplasma virus pneumoniae. The Italian’s resurgence has since taken her again as much as No. 40 this week — and Pegula would have been aware of her return to type, provided that Cocciaretto kickedstarted it by upsetting her in the primary spherical of Wimbledon final yr.
Since then, Cocciaretto has captured her second WTA title in Hobart and made the Doha quarterfinals by way of another Top 5 upset of Coco Gauff, and the 25-year-old introduced that type into the primary set. She tallied eight winners to only 5 unforced errors, landed 70% of her first serves and saved all 4 break factors in opposition to her.
Set two: Pegula finds her serve and volleys
Given her efforts of the day gone by, Pegula may have been forgiven for contemplating a comeback much more of an uphill battle than normal. But few gamers are as adept at mid-match changes because the 32-year-old — and simply as in the second set of her win over Putintseva, they concerned coming forwards extra. A slew of volley winners garnered Pegula a foothold in the match for the primary time, and her breakthrough got here because the Cocciaretto forehand started to overlook its targets in the fourth sport.
Pegula’s serve additionally confirmed a marked enchancment. Having made simply 50% of her first deliveries in the primary set, she landed 86% of them in the second.
Set three: Pegula holds nerve amid momentum shifts
Although Pegula maintained her excessive stage of serving in the decider, touchdown 71% of her first serves, the identical was not true of her floor sport at its outset. A netted forehand handed an instantaneous break to Cocciaretto, who constructed on it with a terrific drop shot-lob mixture to maneuver out to 4-1.
“I think it helps me also just to think very clearly when I’m in a tough situation,” Pegula stated to press. “And I actually felt like I needed to faucet into that immediately the place I simply felt typically I wasn’t like considering on the market, for no matter cause.
“I just had to kind of dial in to like finding that temperament, finding that problem-solving state of mind. And I think if you get too emotional, like it’s really hard to do that sometimes, at least for me.”
But whereas Pegula remained regular, Cocciaretto’s stage fluctuated wildly because the match drew to a detailed. A double fault and two low cost forehand errors gifted the break again in the seventh sport. She managed to struggle off two break factors to carry for 5-4, however as soon as there couldn’t make the most of a 0-30 result in shut Pegula out. At 30-30, Cocciaretto had an open court docket to intention his passing shot into, however as soon as once more netted the forehand.
Cocciaretto performed her finest sport of the set — and arguably one in all her better of the match — to stave off another break level and maintain for 6-5. But that was the final of her problem. Pegula held to like and the following tiebreak noticed Cocciaretto spray forehands and backhands vast, lengthy and into the online, culminating in an unlucky double fault on match level.
