Jessica Pegula's Historic US Open Semifinal Journey

Jessica Pegula is running out of reasons to be underestimated. The clock, though, keeps ticking.

By reaching the US Open semifinals again this week, the American carved out a slice of tennis history that speaks to both her resilience and her timing. She is the first player in the Open Era to reach her first four Grand Slam semifinals after turning 30. Not Serena. Not Venus. Not any of the late bloomers who seemed to bend time. Pegula.

A Late Breakthrough, Then a Relentless Push

Her breakthrough came late by tennis standards. Pegula’s first major semifinal arrived at the 2024 US Open, just months after she turned 30. She turned that run into her first Grand Slam final, pushing Aryna Sabalenka but falling 7-5, 7-5. It felt like a culmination. It turned out to be a starting point.

Twelve months later, she came back to New York and did it again. Another US Open semifinal in 2025. Another collision with Sabalenka. Another narrow defeat, this time 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The margins stayed thin; the questions about whether she could cross the line grew louder.

Her third semifinal came on the other side of the world, at this year’s Australian Open. Elena Rybakina ended that charge, 6-3, 7-6(7), after an hour and 40 minutes of tight, nervy ball-striking. Pegula stood on the edge again, close enough to feel the final, not close enough to touch it.

Now comes the record-setting fourth. Back in New York, back in the semifinals, and this time through a match that distilled her entire career into three sets. Against fellow American Emma Navarro, Pegula trailed by a set and by a break in the decider. She clawed her way out, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, turning a match that was slipping away into another deep run. It is her third consecutive US Open semifinal, a level of consistency that belies how long it took her to get here.

“So Many Friggin’ Times”

Pegula has never hidden how exhausting that climb has felt. Earlier this year, after finally cracking the last four in Melbourne, she laid it out with typical bluntness.

“I’ve been [into major quarterfinals] so many friggin’ times,” she said. “I just kept losing, but to great players, I mean, to girls that went on and won the tournament... So I know everyone keeps asking me about it, but I don't know what else to do. I just need to get there again and win the match.”

The quote sounded half exasperation, half vow. The numbers back it up. Her path to the top tier has been littered with physical setbacks that would have broken plenty of careers long before 30.

A serious knee injury sidelined her from late 2013 to early 2015 and required surgery. Just as she was rebuilding, a hip surgery in January 2017 cost her most of that season. In a sport where champions usually peak in their mid-20s, Pegula spent those years simply trying to get healthy enough to compete. The prime of her career slid backwards on the calendar.

That context makes her milestones heavier. When she reached her first major singles final at the 2024 US Open, she did so as the oldest U.S. woman in the Open Era to make a debut Grand Slam final. The age that might once have been used against her has become part of the story she’s rewriting.

A Season of Relentless Consistency

This year, Pegula has stripped away any doubt about her week-to-week level. She arrived at this US Open semifinal with a 50-12 record on the season and two titles already in her pocket, in Dubai and Charleston. Those aren’t minor stops; they’re markers of a player who shows up, over and over, on different surfaces and continents.

Her North American hard-court swing underlined that point. She made finals in Washington and Cincinnati, carrying that form straight into New York. The first major title still eludes her, but the body of work is starting to look like the résumé of a player who deserves one.

The question is no longer whether she’s good enough. It’s how long she has to turn this consistency into something permanent in the record books.

Racing the Clock, Again

Pegula’s fourth semifinal teed up a familiar and brutal test: a third straight US Open meeting with Sabalenka at exactly the same stage. She walked into that showdown with a 4-9 career record against the world No. 1, fully aware of what she was up against and what it meant.

Every time she gets this far now, the same thought trails her: how many more chances will there be?

She hasn’t been coy about it. On the Tennis Insider Club podcast, Pegula made clear she has no intention of playing into her late 30s. She has said she doesn’t plan to compete past 35 and has floated the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a possible final tournament. A home Games as a farewell. A neat ending, if sport ever allowed for neat endings.

At 32, with four semifinals on the board and no major title yet, every deep run feels loaded. Each one might be the springboard to the moment she’s chased for years. Each one might also be the near miss she looks back on when the racket is finally in the bag for good.

Jessica Pegula has already proved she can bend the usual arc of a tennis career. The next question is harsher, and simpler: in a race against time and a generation of power hitters in their prime, how many more times can she kick the door before it finally swings open?