NEW ⁠YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - American Jessica Pegula clinched a resounding 6-3 ⁠6-4 win over Sorana Cirstea on Sunday to reach the ‌U.S. Open quarter-finals, as the Romanian player made her final Grand Slam appearance.

The 2024 runner-up kept alive her bid for a maiden major title, overcoming a resurgent Cirstea ​who had enjoyed a late-career renaissance, reaching ⁠a career-high top-20 ranking, before ⁠retiring at the end of the season.

There was little between the two ⁠on ‌serve in a scrappy opening set, with only three holds between them. Pegula repeatedly handed Cirstea openings, including when ⁠she double-faulted while serving for the set, and then ​squandered four set ‌points before finally converting the fifth as the 16th seed dropped ⁠serve again.

Pegula, ​who had needed three sets to overcome fellow U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez in the previous round, gained the upper hand in a second set ⁠that followed a similar pattern, with the ​American securing one more break than Cirstea to create the difference.

The victory was Pegula's second over Cirstea in three weeks after she edged the ⁠Romanian in the Cincinnati Open Round of 16.

"I have a lot of respect for her. She's such a great competitor," Pegula said on the Louis Armstrong court.

"We actually hadn't played in a while up ​until the last few weeks. They were two ⁠really tough matches. It was definitely really intense."

Pegula will face the winner ​of the late-night clash between compatriot Emma ‌Navarro and Russia's Anna Kalinskaya for ​a place in her third straight U.S. Open semi-final.

(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in New York; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)