By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday August 18, 2022

Emma Raducanu’s run of rude form was halted by Jessica Pegula on Thursday at the Western and Soutehern Open as the No.8-ranked American continued her breakout season with 7-5, 6-4 triumph over last year’s US Open champion.



Raducanu, who blitzed Serena Williams behind 14 winners and one unforced error in the opening round, and backed that up with a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing of two-time champion Victoria Azarenka, met her match in the steady, methodic Pegula in the night session.

Pegula has been particularly impressive at the biggest tournaments in 2022. The American has now won 34 matches at the Masters 1000 level, and reached the quarters at the Aussie Open and Roland-Garros. She’s also becoming a Top-10 doubles player in recent weeks, confirming her status as a true double-threat on tour.

Raducanu, 19, and ranked 13, came away impressed by Pegula as well.

“I think that Jessica, she's playing great tennis right now. I think she's in really good form,” she said. “I think she's got like, I don't know, eight, nine years on me, so I think if I keep working and it's great to have the exposure to these sort of opponents who have been out there for so long and doing these things day in and day out and see how they play, see how fast their ball comes.”

Pegula, known for flat, hard strikes and her ability to cut off opponent’s angles by moving well out of both corners, finished with 21 errors and 10 unforced errors in the contest.

Pegula was impressed with Raducanu’s ability to keep the match close.

“I thought she played well tonight,” she said of the British No.1. “It was close. It was one break. We traded breaks in the first. I thought she was starting to raise her level in the second set, I thought it was a lot of close points. Just a few unforced errors here and there I felt like were the games.

“I thought it was a pretty high level. We were having good rallies, striking the ball well. I thought she served pretty well, maybe better than I thought. … I thought she was probably playing better maybe the last couple of weeks than she maybe was earlier in the year - and the courts are a little faster maybe, which I think also suits her.”

Raducanu’s performance in Cincinnati leaves her sanguine about her chances at New York. Under new coach Dmitry Tursunov, she has worked to put the aggression back in her game, and she said she felt the difference in her three matches at the Western and Southern Open.

She drops to 12-14 on the season (Pegula improves to 30-14).

“I think that at the US Open I played really good tennis,” she said, referring to last year's breakout performance. “You know, I was swinging with the freedom that I started to tap into this week. And I did really enjoy this week, like if I made an error, it was almost like a positive thing, like, 'Good, you are kind of going for it.' It paid off a lot more than it didn't.”

Pegula moves on to a quarterfinal matchup with Caroline Garcia of France. Pegula owns the 2-1 edge over Garcia but lost to her earlier this season in Sydney.

“I think she's someone that no one really wants to play, because again, she hits the ball really hard, serves really well,” she said. Super powerful. Has big groundstrokes and kind of takes the racquet out of your hands sometimes. Hard to play when you can't get a rhythm.”