Jessica Pegula’s title defense at the Credit One Charleston Open continued to take a positive turn on Friday. For the third time in as many games this week, the No. 1 had to get out of a set down and break the third set, eventually defeating Diana Shnaider 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Charleston: Details | Ruins | Instruction to play
Pegula had already completed third set deficits of 2-0 against Yulia Putintseva in the second game and 4-1 against Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the third game. Against Shnaider, he had to endure a series of crowd-pleasing shots from the rising No. 1 seed.
Pegula’s third-team numbers are boosted again by the result. He is 9-1 in three-way matches in 2026 now, and 18-4 since the US Open. He advances to his fourth semifinal in six games this year, where he will face the No. 4 Iva Jovic or No. 8 seed Anna Kalinskaya.
“To be honest, I didn’t think I had any life left,” Pegula said in his courtroom interview. “I was very frustrated, it was very slow and wet and I felt like the ball was not going anywhere. I was very disappointed at the end of the first. I feel like it has been the last few games – I was able to hold my serve, find a rhythm and serve very well, and then I started to find good ways to play the third. It is aggressive.”
Earlier in the week, Pegula credited the fact that many of his friends and family were in the audience as a way to keep his motivation high, and he paid off the Charleston crowd again after defeating Shnaider.
He said: “When I feel like I have no strength left, you guys are the strength that keeps me going.” “I don’t show it outside during the game, I try to keep my energy, but I feel it every step of the way.”
Game in brief: The game can be capped by a doubleheader in the middle of the second set.
Shnaider, serving down 2-1, fought back in one of the best games of the tournament to hold 2-2. The 22-year-old served seven deuces and saved four break points – one with a service winner, two with two punches, and one with a match point. That saw him show his quickness to track down Pegula and make a deep reply, and his catch on the run on the next play as he pulled down the winning shot in full.
That felt like an important way to maintain the momentum Shnaider built up from a bravura first set in which she hit 12 winners to just four unforced errors. But Pegula erased any meaning he might have had by holding to love in a quick, flurry-free match in the next game – immediately putting the board pressure back on Shnaider.
Two games later, that pressure told. Shnaider’s forehand started to go wrong, and Pegula took the deciding break for 5-3.
Shnaider’s 2-0 lead in the third set also proved to be a false dawn. He got there after struggling through a series of controversies as both players went down at the start of the season. But the World No. The free-flowing 19 of the first two teams had abandoned him, and the unforced errors began to increase – 15 in the third team, compared to 13 of the first two combined. Despite Pegula’s marathon run to the quarterfinals, it was Shnaider who seemed to fade away as the game wore on. He sent a long message to give the gift of a break, held back to tie 2-2, and went down a double break because of a back injury.
Pegula, on the other hand, was able to raise his game in the most important moments — not least at 3-2, when he got a brilliant backhand down the floor to save the second of two break points.
Shnaider still had some magic left at home, saving the first three points against him – the third in another wild exchange of all-court shots that had the crowd on their feet. Again, Pegula was unfazed. Two service winners later, and another great set of board controls was his.
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