Before arriving at the Berlin Tennis Open, Jessica Pegula‘s clay-court campaign ended in disappointment with an opening-round French Open exit. However, since stepping onto grass, she has looked like a different player, storming into the WTA 500 event semis with a 1-hour and 46-minute win over Madison Keys. And after the straight-sets win, the 32-year-old revealed the relaxed mindset that helped her pull off the statement victory. 

“Sometimes on grass I’m not really aiming,” Jessica Pegula added in her post-match interview. “It just goes wherever it wants to go. I think sometimes when you overthink and you try to aim too much, the grass can really kind of play you, and you lose control of the ball. So I just try to commit to hitting in the vicinity of the court. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.” 

Pegula and the 2025 AO champion entered the contest with their H2H tied at 2-2. Their first meeting on grass was close as the world No. 28 won more total points in the match, 86 compared to Pegula’s 83.

However, professional tennis is decided by winning the biggest points, not simply the most points, and that was where the current world No. 4 made the difference.

Keys struck first by using her trademark power to break serve for a 3-1 lead in the opening set. The 31-year-old later moved ahead 4-2 but suddenly lost momentum as errors crept into her game.

Pegula quickly took advantage of the opening. The American forced a tie-break and converted her very first set point with a superb return winner to steal the first set.

The second set unfolded in almost the opposite way. Pegula, the 2024 Berlin Open champion, mixed up her game brilliantly and built a 4-2 advantage before her podcast co-host fought back once again to force another tie-break.

In the deciding moments, the top-seeded American came up with some spectacular shot-making and converted her fourth match point to seal a 7-6(5), 7-6(8) victory in the second-set tiebreaker.

This win gave Jessica Pegula her 3rd victory over Keys in their five career meetings. It also sent her into her 5th SF of the 2026 season while maintaining a 60.34 % career win rate on grass.

Now through to the SF, Pegula will face either the top-seeded player Aryna Sabalenka or the 20-year-old qualifier Nikola Bartunkova. However, even with this strong win, she has already experienced one difficult setback during this year’s Berlin campaign, making her latest victory feel even more rewarding.

Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff suffer Berlin doubles defeat

Singles matches in both WTA and ATP events usually attract the biggest crowds in tennis. But on Thursday, fans from Berlin packed the stands to watch a high-quality doubles clash featuring top-10 singles stars Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula against doubles specialists Asia Muhammad and Fanny Stollár.

The American duo, who have won five doubles titles together, were playing doubles in Berlin for the first time since the 2024 Paris Olympics. There was plenty of excitement surrounding the contest.

However, Coco and Pegula saw their Berlin doubles campaign come to an end in the QF as they suffered a narrow 2-6, 6-3, 8-10 defeat to Muhammad and Stollár. The defeat also ended Gauff’s campaign at the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Berlin Tennis Open after her singles loss to Paula Badosa.

Pegula, though, still has her singles campaign alive now. With a SF place secured, she now turns her full attention toward chasing a spot in the Berlin final.