No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula produced a commanding performance to defeat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-1 in 56 minutes, reaching the third round of the US Open for the seventh straight year.

Pegula, who will become World No. 1 for the first time if she wins her first Grand Slam title and Elena Rybakina loses before the semifinals, improved to 47-12 this season and 5-2 against Kenin. It was their most one-sided meeting by some distance: their first four matches, played between 2016 and 2021, all went three sets.

Pegula has won their past three meetings in straight sets, but this was the first time she held Kenin to fewer than eight games.

“Every match we’ve played throughout the years has been very tough,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “Sonya’s given me a lot of trouble in the past, she’s a great player and a champion. I was just trying to stay focused on what I needed to do, and luckily was able to be pretty efficient out there today.”

Pegula, the 2024 runner-up, will next face the 2021 runner-up. No. 31 seed Leylah Fernandez. Fernandez had not won a Grand Slam match in 2026 before this week but defeated Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4, 6-1 to book her place in the US Open third round for a third time.

Pegula leads their head-to-head 3-1, with all meetings coming on North American outdoor hard courts. The most recent was in this year’s Miami third round, which Pegula won 6-2, 6-2.

Practice pays off for Pegula’s service dominance: Pegula served notice of how dialed in she is on her delivery this week in her first-round win over Elena-Gabriela Ruse, in which she conceded only seven points on serve.

The 32-year-old repeated that feat against Kenin. Once again, she dropped seven points behind her delivery, and this time, she didn’t even face a break point. Her five aces took her tournament total so far to nine.

“I’m going for my spots,” Pegula explained in her on-court interview. “I’m going pretty big on second serves, I’m trying to mix up where I’m going and just trust that I can hit good serves in the moment. That’s been a lot of work we’ve done off court, so really excited when I can practise something and it pays off in the match.”

Pegula’s serve may have been responsible for the eyebrow-raising numbers, but her return game was on fine form as well. While Kenin gifted the opening break to her on a double fault, Pegula’s grit saw her convert a fourth break point to move up 2-0 in the second set, and she found her best backhand returns of the day to seize the double break for 4-0.