USA No.1 Jessica Pegula has continued to profit from house benefit, seeing off Poland’s Magda Linette to succeed in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.
Pegula lives about half-hour north of the match’s Hard Rock Stadium – driving to the venue every day – and made a quick begin in opposition to Linette, racing to a 5-0 lead inside 20 minutes earlier than swiftly closing out the primary set.
Linette regrouped with a few breaks within the second and appeared set to drive a decider when 5-2 forward.
But Pegula, a quarter-finalist at this 12 months’s Australian Open, dug deep to swing the match again in her favour with a run of 5 straight video games to finish a formidable 6-1 7-5 win.
“I love playing on this court, being at home in Florida, in a football stadium. It is just great all round,” Pegula stated in her courtside interview on Amazon Prime.
“She is a really good competitor and was not going to let me win easily.
“She picked up her stage a bit (within the second set) and mine began to drop, then I began to be extra aggressive and acquired right into a rhythm once more and was in a position to reel off some video games.”
Pegula goes on to face Russian Anastasia Potapova, the world No.26, who beat China’s Qinwen Zheng 6-4 7-6 (7-4).
The pair met in the third round at Indian Wells earlier this month, where Pegula came through in three sets.
Italy’s Martina Trevisan also progressed in straight sets after seeing off 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-3, while Romania’s Sorana Cirstea beat Marketa Vondrousova 7-6 (6-3) 6-4 to book her quarter-final spot.
Indian Wells champion Elena Rybakina continued her drive for the so-called ‘Sunshine Double’ as she defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-4 6-3 to make it 11 straight victories. She will play Trevisan within the final eight.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
