Jessica Pegula Dominates Sofia Kenin at US Open

Jessica Pegula barely broke sweat. Sofia Kenin barely got a look in.

On a warm New York afternoon, the No. 3 seed delivered the kind of cold, clinical tennis that screams title contender, dismantling the former Australian Open champion 6-3, 6-1 in just 56 minutes to reach the US Open third round for the seventh straight year.

This was not a rivalry. Not this time.

Their first four meetings, spread between 2016 and 2021, had all gone the distance, three-set battles that spoke to their shared grit and familiarity. Pegula had edged ahead 4-2 in the head-to-head coming in, but Kenin had always made her work.

Here, Pegula shut the door.

She held Kenin to just four games, the most lopsided scoreline of their series and the third straight win in straight sets. For a player who has spent much of her career grinding through long, attritional matches, this was ruthless efficiency.

“Every match we've played throughout the years has been very tough,” Pegula said on court. “Sonya's given me a lot of trouble in the past, she's a great player and a champion. I was just trying to stay focused on what I needed to do, and luckily was able to be pretty efficient out there today.”

Efficient is one word. Dominant is another.

A No. 1 chase built on serve

Pegula’s season has already been impressive – she’s now 47-12 in 2026 – but the stakes in New York are higher than ever. If she wins her first Grand Slam title and Elena Rybakina falls before the semifinals, she will rise to World No. 1 for the first time.

On this evidence, the ranking talk isn’t a distraction. It’s fuel.

Her serve, traditionally solid rather than spectacular, has become a weapon this fortnight. In the first round against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, she gave up only seven points behind her delivery. Against Kenin, she matched that exact number. Seven points lost on serve. No break points faced. Five aces. Nine for the tournament so far.

“I’m going for my spots,” she explained. “I’m going pretty big on second serves, I’m trying to mix up where I’m going and just trust that I can hit good serves in the moment. That’s been a lot of work we’ve done off court, so really excited when I can practise something and it pays off in the match.”

The work is obvious. Kenin never settled in return games, never found a rhythm, never even got close to applying scoreboard pressure. Pegula’s first strike tennis kept her in control from the opening game.

And when the serve set the tone, the return finished the job.

Kenin handed over the first break with a double fault, but Pegula didn’t let her off the hook after that. Early in the second set, she dug in through a long game, converting a fourth break point to move up 2-0. At 4-0, she uncorked her best backhand returns of the day to secure the double break and effectively end the contest.

Kenin, a Grand Slam champion and former top-5 player, never got the chance to show her usual problem-solving skills. Pegula simply removed the problems before they appeared.

From one finalist to another

The draw now offers Pegula a neat piece of symmetry: the 2024 runner-up will face the 2021 runner-up.

Next up is No. 31 seed Leylah Fernandez, who has quietly played herself into form after a lean stretch at the majors. The Canadian had not won a Grand Slam match all year before arriving in New York, but she’s now into the third round of the US Open for the third time after a 6-4, 6-1 win over Mananchaya Sawangkaew.

Pegula leads their head-to-head 3-1, all on North American outdoor hard courts. Their most recent clash came in Miami this season, a brisk 6-2, 6-2 win for the American. The numbers say advantage Pegula. The matchup says: handle with care.

“I think she's tough to play,” Pegula said in press. “She plays a little bit unorthodox, likes to use her forehand and take the ball super early. When she's feeling it, it can be really tough to play against.

“I have had situations where I feel like I've played well against her and done well, but then sometimes if she's on and you start a little slow, she can really be super-aggressive and it's tricky to play against.

“It's hard. And then on top of that, being a lefty and returning her serve I think is always another hard part. There is definitely some stuff I'm going to have to work on and address probably tomorrow, and then hopefully I'm able to play well against her in the next round.”

That’s the edge of this version of Pegula: she’s not just winning, she’s planning. Each round is a problem to be solved, each opponent a pattern to decode.

Against Kenin, the solution was brutal simplicity – serve big, take time away, refuse to blink on return. Against Fernandez, she knows she’ll have to deal with early strikes, lefty angles and a crowd that remembers the Canadian’s run to the 2021 final.

Pegula has spent years as the tour’s metronome, the reliable presence in the late rounds. In New York this fortnight, with the No. 1 ranking within reach and her serve firing like never before, she looks intent on rewriting that label.

The question now is no longer whether she belongs at the sharp end of a Slam.

It’s whether anyone can stop her before she walks through the door marked “champion.”