No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula has reached the Miami Open quarterfinal for the fourth successive year after routing 23rd-seeded Marta Kostyuk 6-2 6-3 in an hour and 23 minutes of play.
Throughout the entire match, the American tennis star was putting major pressure on the Ukrainian’s serve and that resulted in 19 break point opportunities – of which the 2024 US Open finalist converted five. When it comes to her own serve, the home favorite faced only four break points and dropped her serve once.
Kostyuk’s lone break of serve came early in the second set, when she opened a 3-0 lead before losing the next six games. To the No. 23 seed’s defense, she was hampered by a back injury during the match and she had a trainer come out a couple of times.
🇺🇦Marta Kostyuk fell to 🇺🇸Jessica Pegula 2-6, 3-6 in the fourth round of the Miami Open.
After leading 3-0 in the second set, the Ukrainian couldn’t hold her advantage. She also required multiple visits from the physio during the match due to back issues.
Marta played in the… https://t.co/lgftIw80lN
— Ukrainian Tennis • BTU (@ukrtennis_eng) March 24, 2025
Pegula faces next Emma Raducanu
For her second Miami semifinal, the 30-year-old will take on Raducanu, who is in the midst of one of her better runs in over the last couple of years. On Monday, the Briton ousted Amanda Anisimova 6-1 6-3 to make her first WTA 1000 semifinal. Before beating Anisimova, the 2021 US Open champion also clinched her first top-10 on hard when she took down world No. 10 Emma Navarro in the second round.
Pegula, who is now set to play against Raducanu, praised the British tennis star for her performance against Navarro and also insisted that the 22-year-old was capable of being a major threat to any player when playing her best game.
“When she’s playing at a top level, she belongs with the top players. I just think she struggled a little bit with injuries, finding consistency,” Pegula said of Raducanu a couple of days ago.
Tennis World USA