NEW YORK – Jessica Pegula’s run to the US Open began in tears.

Facing long-time friend Shelby Rogers in the first round, Pegula knew it would be emotional no matter what. Rogers had announced the tournament would be her last before she retired, and after securing the straight-set victory, Pegula seemed to realize the significance of the moment.

“We grew up together as junior players, grew up in the same section and it’s really crazy,” Pegula, the No. 6 seed, said crying on the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Pegula had previously told reporters that she simply couldn’t believe that some of her peers were ending their careers. And considering Pegula’s recent success, it’s understandable why she feels that way. While tennis has many teenage prodigies and young people in their twenties who become superstars, Pegula didn’t make it to her first quarterfinal at a major tennis championship until she was 26. She broke into the top 20 for the first time at 27.

And now, at 30, Pegula is on the verge of reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal. The last thing she’s thinking about is retiring. On Monday, with the support of a raucous holiday crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Pegula defeated No. 18 seed Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-2. Having reached the seventh major quarterfinal of her career, Pegula hopes this will be the tournament where she can go one step further, or even more.

“Well, I always say I just need to win one match to get to the semifinals and then everything is settled, right?” Pegula said during her on-court interview on Monday when asked what it would take to advance. “But I mean, I don’t really care. I mean, every match is every match. I’ve always played it that way. It’s just that now it’s the quarterfinals. “But at the same time, it’s great to be able to say I’ve been in this position many, many times. So I just have to keep working on myself and try to play my game. And when you’re out there, it’s just one point at a time.”

Of course, it will not be easy to reach the semi-finals on Thursday.

Pegula will first face world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who has won five major titles including the 2022 US Open, on Wednesday. The two have met nine times on tour, with Swiatek coming out on top 6-3. But Pegula beat Swiatek in the semifinals of the 2023 Canadian Open – a tournament Pegula went on to win – so he knows it’s possible. Daunting, but possible.

However, this is nothing new for Pegula. She overcame a serious knee injury at the start of her career and underwent hip surgery in 2016. She was unable to compete for almost a year and wondered if she wanted to continue. Her love for the sport eventually won out and she decided to continue.

When she returned to competitive play, her ranking was outside the top 800, but she reached her first WTA final in 2018 and won her first Citi Open title in 2019. None of this surprised Rogers, who always knew how good Pegula could be when she played her best.

“Gosh, I just remember she always had a really easy-going, natural power, and it’s no different now,” Rogers told ESPN this week. “And she’s so relaxed when she’s on the court. I feel like tennis is, I don’t want to say pretty easy, but she makes it look easy, and it’s always been that way.”

In 2021, Pegula reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in her first major tournament. And since then, she has been a fixture in the second week of Grand Slam tournaments. After a quarterfinal appearance at the 2022 French Open, she broke into the top 10 for the first time and never left it again. With a career-high ranking of No. 3, which she first reached in 2022, Pegula is ranked No. 6 and could rise as high as No. 3 in New York. No matter what happens from here, she will be the highest-ranked American in the next rankings, as Coco Gauff, the defending champion, was defeated in the fourth round on Sunday.

But despite her high ranking, Pegula has not performed as well in the majors this year as she has in recent seasons. She was eliminated in the second round of both the Australian Open and Wimbledon – tournaments where she had reached the quarterfinals in 2023 – and was unable to compete in the French Open or any other clay-court season due to an unspecified injury.

But this may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

While some of her peers, including Swiatek, complained about the demands of the grueling schedule and others, such as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, cited the extra Olympics and the numerous changes to the surface as part of the reasons for their early exit, Pegula said her injury-related absence had allowed her to be “fresher” at this point in the year.

“When I started on grass, I had a couple of months off,” Pegula said Saturday. “Also, I didn’t travel to the Middle East (in February because of a neck injury). I think in a weird way, looking back, it was almost a good thing that I was able to start that part of the year pretty fresh. Even though there was a lot of back and forth because of the Olympics and the surface changes and all that.”

Since the conclusion of the Olympics – her second appearance with the U.S. team – Pegula won the Canadian Open title and reached the final in Cincinnati. Few came to New York with more momentum.

And she lived up to the pre-tournament hype. Two days after her victory over Rogers, Pegula faced another American: Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion. Kenin had an impressive first-round win over 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, but was simply no match for Pegula. With the 7-6(4), 6-3 victory, Pegula continued her winning streak (11-0) against Americans in 2024. In the third round, she easily defeated Jessica Bouzas 6-3, 6-3.

In Monday’s match against Shnaider, a rising 20-year-old star who has won three titles this season, Pegula needed just 87 minutes to secure the win. Pegula has yet to drop a set all tournament.

She has now won 13 of her last 14 matches and is one of two Americans, along with Emma Navarro, to reach the quarterfinals. If Pegula beats Swiatek, she would become the oldest American to reach her first major semifinal. If she loses, she would tie the record for most Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances without a semifinal appearance in the Open Era. There is, of course, a lot at stake.

But no matter what happens, Pegula will not change her goal of winning a major title. While some of her direct colleagues are retiring, she is more focused than ever.

“It would be damn awesome if I won a Grand Slam,” said Pegula before the tournament began. “I definitely allow myself to dream, I’ve always done that since I was a kid. I think you have to create those moments yourself… I would like to be able to say that I’ve achieved that, that’s always my goal when I take part in a Grand Slam.”