Jessica Pegula continues her impressive form as the No. 4 seed crushed world No. 42 Wang Xinyu 6-2 6-1 to progress into the Indian Wells round-of-16 and also collect her seventh consecutive win.
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The American, who won the WTA 250 tournament in Austin last week, made a bit of a slow start to her third-round match in the desert after getting broken in the first game of the match. However, that didn't turn out to be a big deal since the 2024 US Open runner-up responded by claiming three breaks in the rest of the set and still easily taking the opener.
After winning the last four games of the first set, Pegula also started the second set with a 3-0 lead. While Wang managed to end that seven-game run by serving out the fourth game of the second set, it didn't change much since the American went on another run as she won the next three games to complete her impressive win in just an hour and two minutes of play.
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In-form Pegula hopes she can win Indian Wells for American women's tennis
Believe it or not, no American WTA player has won it all in the desert since Serena Williams in 2001.
When asked about it, the current world No. 4 didn't hide that she would love to end that drought.
"I think it would be awesome just because there are so many massive tennis fans that come to this tournament. I think this is one of the tournaments that fans, it's kind of on their bucket list. Even though it's not a slam, it's definitely up there as kind of being a prestigious tournament to win," Pegula said at the start of Indian Wells.
"So to get an American to win it I think would only grow that exposure of tennis in the U.S. which would be really, really cool.
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"They are just very avid tennis fans. Yeah, it would be awesome. It would go a long way for our sport in the US and maybe not quite as big as US Open, but I think it would have that same feel, same exposure."
Pegula plays next against either Danielle Collins or Elina Svitolina.
