World No. 88 Daria Saville picked up a straight-set win over world No. 7 Jessica Pegula at the Citi Open on Wednesday. Pegula was the top seed in the draw, and won this event back in 2019. It was a pretty surprising result to see the American go down this early, but it gives us some insight on Saville's current form. Now, in Friday's quarterfinals, she'll face world No. 111 Rebecca Marino, who went through qualifying and then earned wins over Venus Williams and Andrea Petkovic.
While Saville’s win over Pegula was undoubtedly impressive, a lot of it came down to the American losing confidence in her serve. Pegula dropped serve in three consecutive games spanning from the end of the first set to the opening of the second. Marino likely won’t give Saville that many opportunities, as she has only been broken a total of three times in her six sets in the main draw.