By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Fourth seed Jessica Pegula walloped fellow American Ann Li to reach the U.S. Open quarter-finals on Sunday, while local fans were left to pin all their hopes on Taylor Fritz as the last home hope in the men’s draw.
Last year’s runner-up Pegula did not have the pre-tournament run she wanted, with early exits in Washington, Montreal and Cincinnati, but had not dropped a set in New York and swatted Li aside 6-1 6-2 in the first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
She next faces either Czech Barbora Krejcikova or American Taylor Townsend in the last eight.
Players enjoyed another afternoon of sunny skies, after Tommy Paul’s Saturday night defeat by Alexander Bublik clouded local fans’ hopes of an end to the 22-year American men’s U.S. Open title drought.
The pressure will be on fourth seed Fritz, runner-up a year ago, when he plays Czech 21st seed Tomas Machac later on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The women’s defending champion and world number one Aryna Sabalenka plays Spain’s Cristina Busca in the final match of the day on Armstrong.
German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff will try to pull off another upset when he faces 24-times major winner Novak Djokovic in the first match in the night session on Ashe, after a confidence-inspiring run through the early rounds.
The 35-year-old dug in to beat 11th seed Holger Rune in a five-set second-round thriller, before handing American Frances Tiafoe his earliest exit from Flushing Meadows in six years in the third.
But four-times champion Djokovic, seeded seventh, will aim to end Struff’s Cinderella story and, with a 7-0 record in their head-to-head, has the right playbook to get the job done.
Ninth seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and Czech Marketa Vondrousova close out the evening programme on the marquee court.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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