WIMBLEDON, England -- Down 4-1 and love-30 in the ultimate set, Marketa Vondrousova rallied -- all the way into the semifinals at the All England Club.

She won the last five games Tuesday to defeat No.4 seed Jessica Pegula 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in a rousing match on Court No.1. Vondrousova entered the tournament with only four career main-draw wins on grass. Now, in less than a fortnight, she’s scored a handful.

In the final accounting, Vondrousova won 90 points, one more than Pegula.

"Yeah, it's amazing feeling," Vondrousova said after the match. "I was down one point in the third set. So, yeah, I mean, my thoughts weren't so good. Yeah, I mean, I'm just very happy. I was fighting through the whole match." 

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The 24-year-old from the Czech Republic will play the second major semifinal of her career on Thursday against unseeded Elina Svitolina, who stunned Iga Swiatek in three sets.

Svitolina stuns Swiatek in Wimbledon quarterfinals

This was the fourth consecutive match in which Vondrousova defeated a seeded player. Previously, she was a winner against No.12 Veronika Kudermetova, No.20 Donna Vekic and No.32 Marie Bouzkova. She’s only the third woman in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon semifinals after defeating four seeded opponents, along with Zheng Jie (2008) and Barbora Strycova (2019).

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And while she’s ranked only No.42 among Hologic WTA Tour players, lowest among quarterfinalists, Vondrousova is now a level 7-7 against Top 5 opponents for her career. With a pair of victories over Ons Jabeur earlier this year in Melbourne and Indian Wells, Vondrousova has won three straight.

It was a disappointing performance for Pegula, who has yet to win a major quarterfinal in six tries.

Serving -- and defending that serve -- is always critical at Wimbledon and Tuesday’s match was no different. Pegula took a 2-0 lead, but Vondrousova came back to break her three times in the next four service games. Serving for the set, the Czech popped a 97 mph ace off the chalk and finished with another big offering, which Pegula couldn’t keep in the court.

"I feel like her backhand was really not so good for me, for the forehand," Vondrousova said. "It stays really low, so you cannot do much from it.

"I just tried to hit maybe harder. The slow balls, they don't really work. She was pushing the backhand so much. I just said to myself, Try to maybe hit harder, see what happens."

It was breezy out on Court No.1, and Vondrousova had more success keeping the ball in play; Pegula played a number of shots that drifted just deep.

With Vondrousova serving at 1-2, Pegula collected the first break. A big forehand forced Vondrousova’s lunging forehand to fall well out. Securing a second break in the final game, Pegula went into the third set with some much-needed momentum.

The opening game required eight minutes and, after saving two break points, Pegula emerged unscathed. Serving at 1-all, she survived another break opportunity for Vondrousova by coming to net three consecutive times and winning all three points.

The drama continued when Pegula broke Vondrousova to take a 3-1 lead -- and rain caused the suspension of play. The roof on Court No.1 was closed and play resumed 25 minutes later.

Pegula held serve easily for a 4-1 lead, but soon Vondrousova started closing the gap. She broke Pegula -- the highlight was a sensational backhand stab volley winner -- and the match was back on serve at 3-4. Another break in the ninth game put Vondrousova over the top.

She finished with seven aces (compared to zero for Pegula) and overcame 35 unforced errors.

In 2019, Vondrousova played the tournament of her life, reaching the final at Roland Garros before falling to Ashleigh Barty.

She’s the sixth Czech woman to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, joining Petra Kvitova, Jana Novotna, Karolina Pliskova, Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova. She’s also only the fifth left-handed player to reach this stage here in the past 30 years, along with Martina Navratilova, Petra Kvitova, Lucie Safarova and Angelique Kerber.

"I never thought I could play so good here because I didn't do well on grass before," Vondrousova said. "For me, it's just amazing feeling. I don't know, I'm trying so hard in every match. Every match is incredibly difficult here."