China Open: Pegula gets first win against Kudermetova to enter round 16

Jessica Pegula earned her first win over Veronika Kudermetova in three attempts at the China Open on Sunday.

The 30-year-old American and No.2 seed Pegula notched a 6-7(9), 6-1, 6-2 victory over No.32 seed Kudermetova in their third-round match in Beijing to reach the round of 16.

Pegula had lost to Kudermetova twice in 2023, including in the Tokyo final almost exactly one year ago. But the third time was the charm for Pegula against Kudermetova after narrowly dropping a grueling opening set, Pegula regrouped to clinch the 2-hour and 39-minute win.

“Every time I’ve played her, it’s always been really tough,” Pegula said after the match. “After I came back from 2-5 in the first set, I kind of knew what to do, I just had to execute in the next couple sets. I’m happy I was able to kind of figure that out and finally help my head-to-head against her.”

The World No.3 Pegula has won 17 of her last 19 matches, defending her Canada title and making finals at Cincinnati and the US Open.

Her only losses during this hard-court run have been to Aryna Sabalenka.

The win also saw her career-best Beijing result with the win and will next No.15 seed Paula Badosa of Spain in the Round of 16.

Earlier on Sunday, Badosa notched a hard-fought 7-5, 7-5 win over qualifier Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia. Badosa had to save two set points in the second set before she snapped Sramkova’s nine-match winning streak.