Jessica Pegula beats Barbora Krejcikova, returns to U.S. Open semis

After failing to reach any Grand Slam semifinals before her 30th birthday, Jessica Pegula reached her second consecutive U.S. Open semifinal Tuesday in New York.

The fourth-seeded American became the first player to punch her ticket to this year's semis with a 6-3, 6-3 win over unseeded Barbora Krejcikova.

Pegula, 31, is just the second player whose career began in the Open Era (since 1968) to make her first two Grand Slam semifinal appearances after turning 30.

"I feel like I'm just really comfortable (at the U.S. Open)," Pegula said in her on-court interview. "It's crazy to look now and think that I'm really comfortable coming out here playing on big courts and big matches on the best court in the world. ... It's something that 10 years ago, I never thought I'd be good at this. I guess I am."

Pegula, a native New Yorker, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set against Krejcikova before the Czech competitor broke back to cut the lead to 4-3. Pegula responded with another break and then served out the set.

In the second set, Pegula broke twice in Krejcikova's first three service games, jumping to a 4-1 lead on the way to a fairly comfortable victory that took an hour and 26 minutes.

It wasn't the most statistically impressive of performances for Pegula. She had 17 winners to Krejcikova's 14 and 20 unforced errors to her opponent's 24.

However, she took advantage of inaccurate service from the 29-year-old Krejcikova, who had seven double faults and landed just 42 percent of her first serves, to win 69 percent of her second-return points (25 of 36).

"I think I've been playing some really good tennis," Pegula said. "I've just been playing very solid. I've had very quick starts. I really wanted to do that today, especially against someone like her who is very dangerous."

At least thanks, in part, to the fact that she has not yet faced a seeded opponent in this year's tournament, Pegula has dropped just 23 total games and no sets through five matches.

That could change in the semifinals, as she's set to face the winner of Thursday evening's quarterfinal between No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and unseeded/60th-ranked Marketa Vondrousova, another Czech.

Pegula lost last year's U.S. Open final to Sabalenka 7-5, 7-5.