Jessica Pegula returned to the tennis courts for the first time in two months at the 2024 Libema Open, making a winning start at the WTA 250 tournament.
The American last played in the Billie Jean King Cup ahead of what was supposed to be her start to the clay season in Stuttgart. She elected to skip that WTA 500 event due to the scheduling, so she then opted to start her clay season at the Madrid Open.
She wouldn't because she got injured during preparations for that, and ever since then, fans have patiently awaited her comeback. The news about her withdrawal from the Roland Garros was very surprising, but she wanted to give herself enough time to fully heal and better prepare for the grass season when she can be quite dangerous.
Now, she made a return at the Libema Open in Den Bosch against a very tricky player Aliaksandra Sasnovich. She had no issues, though, winning the match in two very simple sets because she played really well and her opponent is not having the best of days recently.
The opening set went 6-2 to Pegula, who dominated the rallies quite easily. She didn't face any issues on serve, winning points easily without allowing a single break point to her opponent.
On return, the top seed exerted enough pressure to break two times, which was more than enough. The second set was arguably even more impressive, even though she lost focus a bit towards the end.
Pegula was up 5-1 after dominating the rallies once more, but then she got broken to make it 5-2. It was only a small lapse in focus, nothing major because she closed it out in the next game.
The final score was 6-2, 6-2, which was a really strong start from the American, who looks healthy and quite eager to play some tennis after missing two months of action.