Jessica Pegula Ends Sorana Cirstea’s Grand Slam Career with US Open Victory

Third-seed American player, Jessica Pegula brought down the curtains on the Grand Slam career of one of the veterans of the game, Sorana Cirstea following her straight set victory (6-3, 6-4) over the Romanian. Cirstea is set to retire from Tennis at the end of the 2026 season, despite it being one of her best seasons of her illustrious career, spanning about 20 years.

In May 2026, the 36-year-old Romanian became the oldest player in the rankings history to make her debut in the top 20 and currently stands at her career-best rankings of 17th in the world after she reached the quarterfinals of the French Open earlier this year.

She also had good success this season across other tournaments as she reached the third round of the Australian Open as well as at the Wimbledon. She even lifted her fourth WTA title of her career at her home tournament in Cluj-Napoca.

She missed out on her third major quarter-finals as she fell short to match the power and precision of Pegula at the Flushing Meadows, even though the American struggled quite a bit through the match that saw 11 service breaks. Pegula finally stormed her way to victory on her third match point.

During the post-match presentation, when asked what she told to Cirseta when they embraced each other at the net after the match ended, she replied, “I just told her I don’t know if you are still going to play next year, but you are playing great and I said I have a lot of respect for you.”

Pegula, the last year’s runner-up to two-time defending champion Sabalenka, will continue her chase for a third straight US Open semi-final when she takes on fellow American Emma Navarro who defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-4, 6-2 in their fourth round match.