Australian Open: Jessica Pegula breezes into fourth round to outline title credentials

The victory means she will take part in the second week of the Australian Open in successive seasons for the first time.

Pegula is yet to drop a set at the Australian Open and moves into the fourth round having conceded just 11 games across six sets of tennis. However, despite the flattering scoreline it wasn't that simple a victory for Pegula.

Kostyuk wouldn't go down without a fight and took four of the six games in the opening set to multiple deuces while Pegula saved five break points in the fourth game of the match.

Pegula was happy with her game even if her serve didn't quite function as she might have hoped.

"I thought I just didn't give away a lot of free points," Pegula said in her on-court interview.

"I was playing aggressive when I had to, but also playing smart. I definitely learned a lot from when I last played her to, you know, have a better strategy going into the match. So that worked really well I think right from the start. I think I wasn't serving great today, but I thought I served smart enough to get myself through some tough games."

Pegula said she had to let a few of Kostyuk's best shots go and move on to claim the match in the end.

"I think just the strategy of how I wanted to construct the points," Pegula said while commenting on her strategy.

"I knew she'd had some really flashy, like amazing shots. She's a really great player. I think she's super talented, and she's a great athlete. So I was just trying not to you know, get frustrated if I knew she was going to hit an amazing shot. I just kind of had to let it go and move on to the next point."

Pegula moves on to face former World No 2 Barbora Krejikova in the next round and expects a tough challenge in their first singles meeting.

She said: "I always I've watched her quite a bit she's, had a great last couple years and last year she was a little bit hurt. It seems like she's kind of finding her confidence again. I've actually don't think I've ever played her in singles just in doubles. So I have a little bit of an idea but I'll definitely have to, you know, maybe watch some more for matches and stuff like that but the same time just happy to be through to the fourth round and just excited for the next match."