No.6 seed Jessica Pegula returned to the quarterfinals of her home Grand Slam with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over No.18 seed Diana Shnaider in the US Open Round of 16 on Labor Day.

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On Arthur Ashe Stadium, 30-year-old Pegula needed 1 hour and 27 minutes to fend off rising 20-year-old Shnaider, the youngest player to reach this week's Round of 16.

With the win, Pegula moves into her seventh career Grand Slam quarterfinal, and her second at the US Open. Buffalo, New York native Pegula previously made the elite eight in New York City in 2022.

"I think I'll just try to draw from those experiences and kind of how I felt going into the next match, but it's just so tough," Pegula said, as she prepares for another major quarterfinal. "I know you don't want the cliche answer, but it's just kind of one match at a time, and every day kind of feels different.

"I think maybe the only difference is I had kind of a tough start to the year, so I think I'm a little bit more maybe appreciative of being able to turn it around the last month like I have."

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The American successfully defended her WTA 1000 National Bank Open title in Canada, then reached another WTA 1000 final in Cincinnati before suffering her only loss of the swing thus far to Aryna Sabalenka.

"I think I'm moving a lot better the last month," Pegula said. "I feel like my movement has really improved, which has really helped me stay into a lot of these points and these sets and these games and be super consistent.

"I think I've been serving pretty well. Even if it's not working, I've been kind of getting myself out of service games by serving smart or serving well in big moments like today where she was returning really well. So I would say those two things, I feel like if I look back from previous years, I feel like I'm doing those better right now."

Both of those aspects served Pegula well on Monday. The American won 80 percent of her first-service points against Shnaider, and her defense was impeccable in rallies as she staved off seven of the nine break points she faced.

Striving for semis: After a tough opening half of the year (which included missing the entire European clay-court swing prior to Wimbledon), former World No.3 Pegula has lined up another chance to make a long-awaited first Grand Slam semifinal. She has gone 0-for-6 in her prior Slam quarterfinals.

Another tough opponent awaits her in the quarters -- either World No.1 and 2022 US Open champion Iga Swiatek, or big-hitting No.16 seed Liudmila Samsonova. Swiatek was the one who knocked Pegula out in the 2022 US Open quarterfinals.

"It depends on the day how you're feeling, how you're playing, what happens once you get out there," Pegula said, looking ahead. "I don't know how I'm going to feel until I'm literally first game playing."