Jessica Pegula is back on the tennis court and she's back to winning ways, as she started her 2024 San Diego Open campaign with a win.
The 30-year-old American has been away from the tennis courts since her surprising loss in the second round of the Australian Open. After that, Pegula took an extended break from the sport.
Already in Australia, she seemingly struggled with an injury, which likely bothered her already in Adelaide. After the unexpected second-round loss in Melbourne, the world no. 5 has made a decision to withdraw from the Middle Eastern swing, and she returned to the tennis courts only now.
Her prolonged absence has sparked rumors about possible pregnancy among some fans, and if denying them online wasn't enough, Pegula did it on the tennis court at the WTA 500 tournament in San Diego.
In the first round of the tournament, she took on Jule Niemeier from Germany, who she never met before, but that wasn't a problem, as the American entered the court as motivated as ever.
While her opponent struggled on the serve, Pegula kept hitting one ball after another within the white lines painted on the tennis court, creating a lot of pressure on the German player.
Niemeier wasn't able to cope with that, as she couldn't win a single game in the opening set of the match, losing it 0-6 in only 24 minutes of play.
Although they were certainly happy that their player was winning, fans in San Diego certainly wanted a bit more drama than a straightforward 6-0 win, and they got it in the second set.
Pegula was able to jump into a 5-1 lead, and it seemed that the match would be over any minute, but Niemeier recovered one of the breaks back, and when the American was serving for the match for the second time, the German player even had three consecutive break points.
However, the top seed won five points in a row to finish off the match and win it 6-0, 6-4, booking her spot in the quarterfinals of the 2024 San Diego Open, where she awaits the winner of the match between Anna Blinkova and Dayana Yastremska.
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