Pegula upends Cirstea - Tennis Majors

Pegula has won more matches than anyone on tour this season, and the win over Cirstea was her 49th of 2026. It was also her third consecutive US Open quarterfinal and the 11th of her career at Grand Slam level, at the tournament where she reached the final.

She was not interested in the idea that the scoreline against Cirstea told the story. “I have a lot of respect for her. She’s such a great competitor. Kind of the utmost professional I feel like. I’ve known her for quite a while. We actually hadn’t played in a while up until the last few weeks. They were two really tough matches. I know it seemed like whatever, somewhat straightforward. But that was a battle. It was definitely really intense.”

Cirstea leaves the majors on the best season of her career

The defeat was the last Grand Slam match of Cirstea’s career. She is 36, ranked No. 17, and had arrived in the last 16 by beating Austrian Julia Grabher 6-3, 6-0, French player Diane Parry 6-2, 7-5 and Italian No. 19 seed Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-3. Her season is not over, but her time at the majors is.

Navarro, ranked No. 27, is into her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2025 Australian Open and her second at the US Open, where she reached the semifinals two years ago. The run has been built on beating better-ranked players rather than avoiding them: after French opponent Loïs Boisson 7-6 (6), 6-7 (1), 6-3 and American Caty McNally 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, she removed Wimbledon finalist Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, the No. 7 seed, 6-3, 7-5.

Kalinskaya had done comparable damage on her side of the section, ranked No. 23 and beating Russian compatriot Anna Blinkova 6-4, 6-3, China’s Xinyu Wang 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 and Ukrainian No. 9 seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Those two third-round results, Muchova and Svitolina falling on the same day, are what opened the quarter that Pegula and Navarro now have to themselves.

Pegula has won all four meetings

The head-to-head belongs entirely to Pegula, who is 4-0 and beat Navarro most recently at Cincinnati last month. Between them they hold the deeper US Open records of the two Americans still standing in this section, a former finalist against a former semifinalist, and one of them will be in the semifinals.

Jessica Pegula (No. 3) beat Sorana Cirstea (No. 16) 6-3, 6-4 and Emma Navarro (No. 26) beat Anna Kalinskaya (No. 21) 6-4, 6-2 in the fourth round of the US Open 2026 to set up an all-American quarterfinal. It is Pegula’s 49th win of the season, the most on tour, her third consecutive quarterfinal in New York and her 11th at Grand Slam level. Navarro reaches her first major quarterfinal since the 2025 Australian Open, having knocked out Wimbledon finalist Karolina Muchova. Pegula leads the head-to-head 4-0. Cirstea, 36, played the final Grand Slam match of her career.

US Open 2026, Full women’s singles Fourth Round list:

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