Sixth seed Petra Kvitova has quietly made her way through the draw and she took another step towards a first US Open title with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jessica Pegula to kick off the night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Kvitova rolled through her early service games, winning the first ten points until Pegula flipped a 30-0 deficit into a break point, which she missed out on after an unforced error.
A second chance was wasted with another error and the sixth seed eventually held for a 3-2 lead. Pegula faced a break point after Kvitova blasted a forehand winner and she drew an error from the American to take a 5-3 lead.
A double-fault on break point put the American back on serve, but after a series of forehand errors, she threw in her own double-fault to give the Czech a one-set lead.