At 32 years old, Jessica Pegula recorded the first 6-0 6-0 victory of her career with a commanding win over Rebeka Masarova in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. The world No. 5 has now won three consecutive bagel sets, having also defeated Zeynep Sonmez 6-4 6-0 in the previous round.
Playing Rome for the fifth time, with her previous best result being a quarterfinal run in 2021, Pegula added another career first by dismantling Swiss qualifier and world No. 160 Masarova without losing a game, in just 61 minutes.
The fifth seed opened the match with a love break and closed the opening set with a love hold. Although the games in the second set were more competitive, Pegula never faced a break point and comfortably sealed victory in the pair’s first career meeting.
For a place in the Rome quarterfinals, Pegula will face qualifier Anastasia Potapova, who reached her maiden WTA 1000 semifinal at the recent Mutua Madrid Open. So far, the American has dominated their head-to-head, beating Potapova in all of their previous five meetings.
Currently on 112 WTA 1000 career wins, Pegula has drawn level with Venus Williams for the second-most WTA 1000 victories by an American woman since the format was introduced in 2009. Only Serena Williams, with 148 wins, stands ahead of them on the list.
