No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula recovered from a slow start to beat Iva Jovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in an all-American fourth-round match to advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time since 2023, Yankee Scores reports
Jovic strikes first
The 18-year-old Jovic, seeded 16th, was fearless from the start, breaking Pegula’s serve four times in a topsy-turvy opening set that she took 6-4. Pegula was off her first serve, winning just 6 of 17 first-serve points in the set.
A Wimbledon quarter-finalist again 👏 pic.twitter.com/zH26cyNCQd
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2026
Everything changed in the second. Pegula’s first-serve win percentage soared above 80 percent as she took charge 6-3 and then cruised in the decider with aggressive baseline play to close out the match 6-1.
She finished with 21 winners and broke Jovic’s serve eight times out of 17.
“I couldn’t find my serve the first set, but I kept telling myself I wasn’t playing bad,” Pegula said. “Luckily I started playing better and I increased my intensity.”
This Season’s Rivalry
The victory gave Pegula a clean sweep over Jovic across three different surface in 2026. Per WTA, Pegula beat the teenager 6-4, 6-2 on hard courts in Dubai and 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 on clay in Charleston, winning both tournaments as well.
Pegula, the 2024 US Open runner-up, is now waiting for the winner of the match between fellow American Coco Gauff and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
