NEW YORK -- No. 4 Jessica Pegula, the highest-seeded American remaining in the US Open women's singles draw, defeated Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday to get to the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament for just the second time in her career.
Pegula failed to advance into the semis in her first 22 main draw appearances at a major before reaching the final at Flushing Meadows a year ago, when she lost to Aryna Sabalenka. They'll meet again in the semifinals on Thursday after Sabalenka advanced in a walkover when Marketa Vondrousova withdrew because of injury.
"My biggest accomplishment last year was just getting past the quarterfinals," Pegula said. "Now I can say I've done it twice."
This year, Pegula was eliminated in the fourth round at the Australian Open, the third round at the French Open and the first round at Wimbledon. Being back on hard courts at the US Open has been a recipe for success. For the second consecutive year, Pegula made the final four at Flushing Meadows without dropping a set, and has only been pushed past five-all in one set so far, which came in the second set of her third-round match with Victoria Azarenka.
Before Pegula, the last woman to reach the US Open semifinals in back-to-back years without surrendering a set was Serena Williams, who did so four straight times from 2011-14.
Pegula has lost 23 total games in this tournament, the fewest by an American woman en route to a major semifinal since Williams at the 2016 Australian Open (22 games lost prior to semis).
"I've been able to kind of go into those matches and really take care of business," Pegula said. "I think that's also what's given me a lot of confidence is I've played good players but [had] convincing wins over those players."
Pegula, 31, is aiming for her first Grand Slam championship. She and No. 8 Amanda Anisimova are the only Americans left in the women's singles field.
Krejcikova knocked out one of them, Taylor Townsend, who failed to convert eight match points when they met in the quarterfinals on Sunday. Pegula was not perfect, but she played well enough to stay in control at all times and broke Krejcikova one final time to end the match in under 90 minutes -- on her first match point attempt.
"It got really tight," Pegula said. "She had a couple really good returns when I was serving at 4-1, and then we all saw what she did against Taylor, so I was happy that we're done."
Krejcikova, a two-time major champion, credited Pegula for placing shots in the middle of the court where she couldn't return the ball.
"She didn't really miss that many, and she was playing quite good tennis," Krejcikova said. "I wish I did better but just today wasn't the day."
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.