Jessica Pegula Reaches US Open Quarterfinals with Win Over Sorana Cirstea
Jessica Pegula walked off Louis Armstrong Stadium with a straight-sets win and one word circling in her mind: respect.
The No. 1 American eased past Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to reach her fourth US Open quarterfinal in the last five years, but the scoreline only told part of it. This was businesslike from Pegula, yes, but it was also a nod to a veteran opponent playing out the final chapters of her Grand Slam career.
“I think she's such a great competitor and the utmost professional,” Pegula said of the 36-year-old Romanian, who plans to retire at the end of the season. Then she underlined what the numbers didn’t quite show: “I know it seemed somewhat straightforward, but that was a battle. It was definitely really intense.”
A blistering start, then a real fight
For a few minutes, it looked like Pegula might run Cirstea straight out of the stadium.
She won the first 13 points of the match. Total control. Clean hitting, early strikes, not a hint of nerves. At 3-0 up, the match threatened to turn into a rout.
Cirstea refused to let it.
The tone shifted in the sixth game of the opening set. Pegula, serving with a double-break cushion, suddenly found herself staring at 0-40. The American dug in, erased all three break points, and held. It was a small hold on the scoreboard, a huge one in the flow of the match. Cirstea had cracked the rhythm, but Pegula slammed the door before any real damage could spread.
Even then, closing the set was anything but routine. Pegula needed five set points to finally lock up the opener, a reminder that Cirstea, even at 36 and on the way out, still knows how to make an opponent work.
Echoes of Cincinnati, without the collapse
The pair had only just seen each other. On August 19 in Cincinnati, Pegula led by a set and a break before Cirstea dragged her into a three-set grind, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. That day, Pegula flirted with letting a winning position slip.
This time, she refused to give Cirstea the same opening.
The second set followed a familiar pattern at first: Pegula jumped ahead again, taking four of the first five games for a 4-1 lead. Her return game kept chewing at Cirstea’s serve, and the rallies grew heavier, more physical, more emotional.
Cirstea, though, didn’t go quietly. Serving at 1-4, she faced four break points that would have left Pegula serving for the match at 5-1. The Romanian saved them all, clinging on with the same stubborn defiance that has defined her long career. She held for 2-4, and suddenly the set turned into a tug-of-war.
The finish was chaotic: four straight breaks of serve to close it out. Pegula kept pressing, stepping inside the baseline, forcing the issue. Cirstea kept swinging, still willing to take the ball on early, still prepared to live and die by her aggressive instincts.
In the end, Pegula’s weight of shot and superior depth held up just long enough. She secured the decisive final break to seal the match, avoiding the kind of late drama that nearly cost her in Cincinnati.
A quarterfinalist again, and a farewell in the shadows
For Pegula, this win reinforces a remarkable level of consistency in New York. Four quarterfinals in five years is not an accident; it’s a pattern of a player who knows how to handle the noise, the pressure, and the expectation of a home Slam.
For Cirstea, it was something different. Not an official goodbye, not yet, but the likely end of a 15-year Grand Slam journey on the sport’s biggest stages. She leaves with her reputation intact: a fierce competitor, a pro’s pro, and, in Pegula’s words, “the utmost professional.”
Pegula moves on with her game in good working order and her respect for the opponent firmly stated. The stakes rise now, the margins shrink, and the quarterfinal lights at the US Open burn a little brighter.
