At the end of the final Grand Slam tournament of her 2022 breakthrough season, Jessica Pegula found herself in a familiar, painful position. She had reached the quarterfinals of three of the four majors this year, but was defeated by the top seed each time. After another loss to Iga Swiatek at the US Open, Pegula arrived at her press conference sipping a can of beer. “I’m trying to pee on doping,” she said. “Although it helps to ease the loss.”

That moment, which instantly went viral, was a perfect example of the good-natured way in which Pegula dealt with one of the most frustrating struggles of her career – the inability to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. It took two more years and a total of six painful quarterfinal losses before she achieved her goal. Finally, in a perfect moment, Pegula reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open by defeating world No. 1 Swiatek 6-2, 6-4.

“I lost so damn many times, I just kept losing,” she said afterward. “But to great players – to girls who went on and won the tournament. I know everyone kept asking me if I could win a quarterfinal, but I thought, ‘I don’t know what else to do, I just have to get back there and win the match.’ Thank God I did it and finally, finally I can say I’m in the semifinals.”

In the men’s singles, number one seed Jannik Sinner is the only remaining Grand Slam champion after beating Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach a semifinal against Briton Jack Draper in a turbulent match that ended shortly before midnight in New York.

By defeating the world No. 1, sixth-seeded Pegula is now in the semifinals alongside fellow Americans Emma Navarro, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe. This is the first time since 2003 that multiple U.S. players have reached the semifinals of both the women’s and men’s U.S. Open. Pegula will next face unseeded Karolína Muchová, who reached the semifinals last year before undergoing wrist surgery earlier this season. Muchová defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-1, 6-4 earlier Thursday.

Pegula played a composed, solid game and showed her tactical skill by cutting off Swiatek’s angles, pressuring the Pole with deep, flat groundstrokes in the middle and patiently waiting for her moments to attack. She also moved brilliantly and took Swiatek’s first shot well.

While Pegula played a brilliant match and held her nerve at the end, Swiatek’s performance was atrocious. She had major problems with her serve and couldn’t find her timing from the start, ending a disappointing evening with her 41st unforced error of the night.

“I’ve played a lot of tournaments where I didn’t serve well and still won,” she said. “But I probably didn’t find the right solution because I couldn’t push with my serve. Also, I wasn’t solid enough from the baseline to have that kind of backup. If you make that many mistakes, you’re not going to win, and I made them. That’s on me.”

Although the men’s draw was wide open following the early exits of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, that openness had no impact on the top quarter, where the last two remaining major champions faced each other for the third time in the Grand Slams this year. After Sinner overcame a two-set deficit at the Australian Open to win his first Grand Slam title against Medvedev, Medvedev took revenge in the Wimbledon quarterfinals with a five-set victory.

This encounter was far less dramatic. Sinner came out of nowhere in the first set and overwhelmed Medvedev with his tremendous pace and power on both groundstrokes, while his defense also made it difficult for Medvedev to consistently hit the ball past him. After Sinner had played through the first set, the game went the other way as Medvedev played focused tennis and Sinner’s intensity dropped off considerably. Then it went back again.

In four sets where momentum swung back and forth, the combined power of Sinner’s devastating groundstrokes and defense was too much for Medvedev, who played below par overall in a match that required his very best tennis. Medvedev left Arthur Ashe Stadium with 57 unforced errors, soundly beaten by the No. 1 player.

“It was very tough,” Sinner said. “We know each other pretty well, we’ve played in Australia and London. We knew it was going to be very physical. The first two sets were strange because whoever got the first break was rolling the dice, but I’m really happy.”

Sinner has now reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in his career; he is the fourth active player and the only man under 35 to do so after Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic. He has also reached the semifinals of three of the four majors this year.

Next up is an interesting battle with Draper. The two are both 22 years old, they faced each other as juniors and became good friends on the ATP tour. They recently played doubles together at the Canadian Open.

“We know each other very well,” Sinner said. “Off the court we’re good friends, so it’s going to be tough. He’s playing unbelievably, he hasn’t lost a set yet, so he’s playing very, very well. So let’s see what happens. I’m just happy to be in the semifinals and let’s see who can play better in a few days.”