Sixth seed Jessica Pegula had the entire United States on her feet on Thursday (September 5) night. The American defeated Karolina Muchova 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam singles final at the 2024 US Open.
In the stands, Pegula had almost everyone cheering for her. However, the biggest support came from her father, Terry Pegula. He is well-known in sporting circles as the owner of the American football team Buffalo Bills and ice hockey team Buffalo Sabres.
At 30 years old, Jessica became the oldest American woman in the Open Era to reach her first Grand Slam final. She joins Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova as one of the few American women over 30 to reach the US Open final.
Jessica will face World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in the final on Saturday. It will be a rematch of their recent Cincinnati Open final, which Sabalenka won 6-3, 7-5. If she gets the better of Sabalenka this weekend, Pegula will become only the fourth American woman in the past decade to win the US Open, after Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, and Coco Gauff.
Jessica Pegula in awe of her dream run at the US Open
Jessica Pegula‘s performances during the North American hard court swing have been impressive. After a tough start to her year due to injuries, she missed four WTA 1000 events as well as the French Open. Having been ranked World No. 20 in the Race to the WTA Finals, she now has the chance to reach World No. 3 after her performances at the US Open.
After confirming her spot in the final in New York, Pegula stated that she put in a lot of hard work to put herself one win away from glory. She expressed joy at being able to put together a strong run at the Major on home soil.
It's a childhood dream. It's what I wanted when I was a kid. It's a lot of work, a lot of hard work put in. You couldn't even imagine how much goes into it. So to be able to overcome all those challenges and say that I get a chance at the title Saturday is what we play for as players, let alone being able to do that in my home country here, in my home Slam. It's perfect, really. Jessica Pegula said in a US Open press conference
Pegula finally broke her Grand Slam quarterfinal curse by beating World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, making it to her first Major semifinal. After that, she came from behind to beat Karolina Muchova in the semifinals. The American has won 14 of her last 15 matches, covering her title-winning run at the Canadian Open and the runner-up finish at the Cincinnati Open.
The 30-year-old’s only loss in this stretch came against Aryna Sabalenka, who stands between her and the US Open singles title. The two are locked at 2-2 in the head-to-head on hard courts. Overall, though, Sabalenka leads Pegula 5-2.
