Jessica Pegula enjoyed one of her strongest days at Wimbledon as her racket powered winners left, right and center during a 6-1, 6-3 fourth-round win over Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko on Sunday that sent the American player to the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the first time.
"That was great. ... I came out playing really well, exactly how I wanted to play, and I was just trying to ride that momentum as well as I could," Pegula said in a courtside interview after becoming only the fifth American woman in the past 25 years to reach the last eight at all four majors.
The fourth-seeded Pegula will next try to record her first Grand Slam quarterfinal win when she faces Marketa Vondrousova. Pegula is 0-5 in major quarterfinals in her career, with only three women having more losses in that round without a win.
Mirra Andreeva, 16, the latest teen sensation in tennis, also won Sunday as she continued her strong debut at the All England Club, earning a spot in the fourth round with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 22nd-seeded Anastasia Potapova on No. 3 Court.
Andreeva is the youngest player since Coco Gauff in 2019 to reach the women's fourth round at Wimbledon. She reached the third round at this year's French Open in her first major tournament.
"I came back from 1-4, so of course I feel great," Andreeva said on court before explaining how she keeps her cool. "Today, honestly, even if I wanted to show some emotions, I honestly, I couldn't because I was out of breath almost every point. I really couldn't show any emotions."
They came out after, though, when Andreeva sat in her chair and pulled her purple Wimbledon towel up over her face for a few seconds to regain her composure. She will next face No. 25 Madison Keys for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Tsurenko also showed her emotions during Sunday's loss, slapping her thighs and talking animatedly into her racket. Pegula took full advantage of her opponent's woes as she walloped thunderous winners from the baseline to streak into a 5-0 lead in 18 blinding minutes.
Perhaps still feeling the effects of the mammoth effort she put into overcoming Ana Bogdan in the previous round, when she won the longest women's singles tiebreak (20-18 in the third set) at a Grand Slam in the Open era, Tsurenko could do little to stop Pegula's charge.
Tsurenko was nearly shut out in the opening set before Pegula missed a set point in the sixth game. That blip allowed Tsurenko to finally register her name on the scoreboard, earning a round of sympathetic applause from the Court 1 crowd.
That respite, however, was brief, as Pegula went on another three-game winning spree.
The mounting errors left Tsurenko, 34, trailing 5-1 in the second set as well, and while she managed to break Pegula's serve two games later, it seemed her body had faced enough punishment for the day.
After saving two match points, Tsurenko winced in pain on the baseline before removing her right shoe and sock, revealing a bloody underfoot blister. The on-court intervention from the trainer only delayed the inevitable, as two points later Pegula was celebrating with a clenched fist.
Vondrousova defeated 32nd-seeded Marie Bouzkova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 to set up her match with Pegula. Vondrousova looked uncomfortable throughout the contest, committing 44 unforced errors, but held her nerve to grind out a win despite dropping the first set.
"I didn't get many wins on grass before. Now I'm in a quarterfinals, so I wasn't expecting that," said Vondrousova, who had failed to progress past Wimbledon's second round in four previous attempts as a singles player. "I talked with my coaches before, and they told me, 'You have the game for it.' I think you just have to believe it, you know, be open-minded and just work for it."
For Andreeva, the pressure at the oldest Grand Slam tournament will only intensify. After six straight victories in her only six matches playing on grass -- three in qualifying and three in the main draw -- Andreeva is now looking to emulate 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu and become only the second qualifier in history to win a major tournament.
"Of course, in 2021 she did amazing job. Everyone was impressed," Andreeva said of Raducanu, who is missing Wimbledon this year because of injuries. "But me, I just try to not think about it. I think it will disturb me, all these thoughts. I just try to play every match and don't think how far I have gone already or which round I'm playing, against who I'm playing."
This year is only the second time play is officially scheduled for the middle Sunday. Four times in the past, in 1991, 1997, 2004 and 2016, organizers used the day to deal with a backlog of matches.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.