Jessica Pegula Advances to US Open Quarterfinals with Respect for Cirstea
Jessica Pegula walked off Louis Armstrong Stadium with a straight-sets win and one word circling in her mind: respect.
The scoreline read 6-3, 6-4 over Sorana Cirstea, a clean enough victory to send the American into her fourth US Open quarterfinal in the last five years. The story, though, stretched beyond the numbers. This was likely the last Grand Slam match of Cirstea’s career, and Pegula treated it that way — with edge in her game and deference in her voice.
“I think she's such a great competitor and the utmost professional,” Pegula said afterward. It sounded less like a stock compliment and more like a verdict.
A fast start, a hard grind
For 13 points, Pegula looked untouchable.
She tore into the match, winning the first 13 points to race out to a 3-0 lead, the kind of start that can bury an opponent still feeling their way into a big-stage afternoon. Cirstea, 36 and announcing plans to retire at the end of the season, could easily have faded.
She didn’t.
The match tightened quickly. Pegula’s early dominance gave way to something closer to their bruising Cincinnati encounter on Aug. 19, when the American needed three sets — 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 — after leading by a set and a break. The memory of that wobble hung over this one, especially as the errors crept in and both players struggled to lock down their serves.
Pegula still controlled the opening set, but she had to dig. Serving at 3-2, she stared down 0-40 and clawed her way out, a hold that underlined the difference in weight of shot and belief. She needed five set points before finally closing it, a reminder that Cirstea was not going to hand over anything, not even in what felt like a farewell run.
“It was definitely really intense,” Pegula admitted. “I know it seemed somewhat straightforward, but that was a battle.”
Cirstea’s resistance, Pegula’s composure
The second set followed a similar script: Pegula surged, Cirstea refused to go quietly.
Pegula jumped ahead again, winning four of the first five games and threatening to run away with it. Cirstea, though, dug in on serve at 1-4, saving four break points to stay within reach at 2-4. Every hold felt like defiance, every extended rally a reminder of why she has lingered near the top of the game for so long.
The match then descended into a scrap of nerves and breaks. The final stretch featured four straight breaks of serve, a tug-of-war that spoke to both Pegula’s occasional lapses and Cirstea’s refusal to let the moment simply wash over her.
Pegula, crucially, never let the situation spiral as it had in Cincinnati. She absorbed the pressure, accepted the chaos on serve, and trusted that her baseline solidity would eventually carry her over the line. It did.
A quarterfinalist again, and a farewell in the shadows
When the last point ended, there was no wild celebration from Pegula, only the satisfaction of a job done and an opponent honored. She had handled the occasion, the emotions, and the weight of expectation on home soil.
For Cirstea, this was almost certainly the final act on a Grand Slam stage. No trophies, no farewell ceremony, just a hard, honest match against a top player who refused to treat her like a ceremonial opponent. In many ways, that was the highest form of respect.
Pegula moves on again in New York, deeper into a tournament that is starting to feel like annual territory for her. The question now is no longer whether she belongs in the latter stages of majors.
It’s whether this is the year she finally breaks through them.
