American tennis star Jessica Pegula SHOCKS world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the United Cup semifinals

Jessica Pegula has upset world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and given the USA a surprising and significant early lead over Poland in the opening United Cup semifinals in Sydney.

Pegula reversed a run of four consecutive losses against Swiatek with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over the reigning French and US Open champion and hot Australian Open favorites.

After climbing to No. 3 in the 2022 rankings after an outstanding campaign, Pegula was hardly a wimp himself and has never blinked under a closed roof at the Ken Rosewall Arena.

Pegula broke Swiatek five times and dropped her own serve just once as she stormed to her first win over the three-time Grand Slam champion since 2019.

American tennis star Jessica Pegula has won her United Cup singles semi-final match

She defeated world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland in straight sets, dropping just one serve

“I’ve played them in a lot of different places, but I definitely feel like these were the fastest conditions,” Pegula said.

“Poland also had a difficult turnaround yesterday (from Brisbane) and we were lucky to have played here and maybe have a small advantage because we’re used to the pitches.

“So I wanted to take that and use it as much as possible and I’ve done a really good job playing very aggressively, serving intelligently and returning really well.”

Unbeaten in three singles and two mixed doubles matches in the inaugural United Cup, Pegula’s latest win gives the USA a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match.

US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe is a hot favorite to beat low-ranked Kacper Zuk in Friday’s men’s singles to ram Team USA’s lead over Saturday’s remaining three gummies.

Greece and Italy will play the opening two singles matches of the second semi-final later on Friday night in Sydney.

Maria Sakkari meets Martina Trevisan before Michail Pervolarakis meets Lorenzo Musetti.

Next up for Team USA is a match between Frances Tiafoe (above) and Pole Kacper Zuk