By Martyn Herman
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – Iva Jovic is regarded as the leader of a new generation in American women’s tennis but on Sunday at Wimbledon she was handed a reality check by compatriot Jessica Pegula who used all her experience to cut the teenager down to size on Court One.
The 32-year-old Pegula said beforehand she had expected the 18-year-old Jovic to come at her hard and so it proved, but after a scrappy first set, she won 4-6 6-3 6-1 to reach the quarter-final and equal her best Wimbledon run.
The opener featured seven service breaks, with Pegula describing the action like a ‘ping pong match’. But once she settled, she stamped her authority on the match.
“I’m happy with the way I was able to kind of readjust and not kind of panic too much and just reset,” Pegula said.
“I wasn’t serving well, so I ended up losing the set and that’s not how I was going to win the match.
“Just told myself to pick up the first-serve percentage, get some more first-serve free points, quick points.”
Jovic was trying to reach her second Grand Slam quarter-final having done so at this year’s Australian Open and looked on course to do that before Pegula dug her heels in.
Serving with more authority and cutting out the unforced errors, Pegula won four games in a row after losing the first game of the second set and did not look back.
Jovic, the 16th seed, began to look dispirited in the third set as the 32-year-old Pegula moved quickly towards the finish.
Pegula, one of five American women to reach the last 16 for the first time since 2002, could face another compatriot in the last eight if Coco Gauff beats Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.
Like Madison Keys on Saturday, she hopes that match could see her tick off a first appearance on Centre Court having graced all the other biggest Grand Slam arenas.
“It would be really cool. An honour, obviously,” she said. “If I get there, by making a semi-final that would be awesome.
“I would love to earn my spot to be there.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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