Aug 31, 2023; Flushing, NY, USA; Daria Kasatkina hits to Sofia Kenin of the United States on day four of the 2023 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Mandatory Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Sports
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Jessica Pegula crushed Patricia Maria Tig 6-3 6-1 at the U.S. Open on Thursday to set up an enticing third-round clash with Elina Svitolina.
The clean ball-striking of the top-ranked American was more than the world number 700 from Romania could handle in a match that lasted just over an hour.
Pegula, seeded third, never trailed in a contest where she won 80% of her first serve points and broke Tig's serve six times.
Next up for the Buffalo native is Ukrainian Svitolina, who came from behind to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia earlier in the day.
Pegula edged Svitolina in a three-set battle in Washington D.C. earlier this month and holds a 3-1 advantage in their career meetings.
"Every single match we play is just a really good battle," Pegula said.
"I feel like we play to each other's games where we make each other play better and we always have really great matches."
Svitolina returned in April following the birth of her daughter and Pegula said she had already got back to top form.
"It's great to see her back, playing at such a high level so quickly. I just played her a few weeks ago so it's going to be very tough," she said.
Pegula took Arthur Ashe Stadium court after defending men's champion Carlos Alcaraz won his second-round match and said she is starting to feel comfortable on the sport's biggest stage.
"I never thought that I would be getting used to Ashe, but somehow I am," she said.
"But it's hard to follow Carlos. It's a tough act to follow, man."
Earlier, Russian Daria Kasatkina battled back to defeat American Sofia Kenin 2-6 6-4 6-4 and reach the third round.
The 13th seed looked to be heading out of the tournament after Kenin cruised through the first set and took a 3-1 lead in the second.
But she settled in from there, breaking Kenin for 3-3 and again to level the contest at a set apiece.
Kenin, a former Grand Slam champion now ranked number 101 in the world, broke in the opening game of the decider but was broken right back in a match that featured 14 total breaks of serve.
Kasatkina and Kenin have now split their four career meetings.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
