Top Americans Advance In San Diego; Swiatek-Zheng, Gauff-Andreescu Today

Three of the top four American women were winners in San Diego on Wednesday.

Jessica Pegula made her debut with a very strong 6-3, 6-1 win over Coco Vandeweghe.

“When she’s on with her serve and her returns, it’s really tough,” Pegula said. “My goal was just to try and attack and put pressure on her serve when I got the chance.

“On my serve, I thought I just had to serve smart and be ready for a big return. She’s got so much easy power, so sometimes she can put a lot of pressure on you, so I was just trying to focus on those two things.”

The win puts Pegula into the Fort Worth year-end finals.

Coco Gauff finished off Robin Montgomery 6-3, 6-3 and Danielle Collins stomped on Italian clay ace Martina Trevisan 6-2, 6-4.

“It was the first time playing someone younger than me in probably at least seven years,” Gauff said. “It was definitely a different feeling for me.

“I know Robin very well,” she added. “We went on a couple USTA trips back when we were like 8 years old. Pretty much friends ever since. She played really well. I expected a good level from her.”

Qualifier Donna Vekic kept her upset run going knocking out Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-2. Pliskova had won her last six matches against Vekic.

“I think all the hard work is finally paying off,” said Vekic who earlier upset Maria Sakkari. “I think this week and in Tallinn I started to believe in myself a little bit more, just going for my shots. It’s something I wasn’t doing during the U.S. swing. I did all the hard work, I’ve done all the right things in practice. It was kind of coming in the match in New York but in the important points I didn’t go for it, I didn’t trust myself. That’s what I started to do in the last couple of matches and it’s paying off.”

Today, Gauff will take on former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and world No. 1 Iga Swiatek opens up against 20-year-old prodigy from China Qinwen Zheng.

“I think she is a very aggressive player,” Gauff said of a first-meeting with Andreescu. “We all know she likes to step into the court and take balls early. I think it’s going to be an interesting matchup.”

Sloane Stephens also battles Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys collides with Daria Kasatkina.

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