Jessica Pegula's stay in Den Bosch didn't last too long because the American was stunned in her second match at the 2024 Libema Open by Aleksandra Krunic.
Krunic is a veteran player, who has been around for a very long time. She's always been known as a solid grass player. Part of that comes from her extensive doubles experience, so she's quite skilled in all sorts of useful grass shots.
Fans in the Netherlands saw a lot of those shots, and Pegula struggled with it all day long. She's not the quickest player around the court, and that movement hurt her in this second-round match because she was quite late on many shots.
Krunic utilized the wide-court shots to move Pegula around while dosing her aggression appropriately as well. The top seed's hitting is generally very crisp, but she doesn't have many matches under her belt after her recent injury, and her timing was not there yet, especially on grass.
The opening set saw Pegula breaking her opponent but then failing to hold that one-break advantage. The set ended up in a tie-break, which Krunic won 7-3 because she simply played better.
Pegula found a bit of rhythm in the second set, taking an early break, but she couldn't hold it, so the set ended up in yet another tie-break. In that tie-break, though, the American player played better and won it, so the match had to be decided in the third set.
It was a proper battle, though. Krunic took an early break, and oddly enough, it proved enough. Pegula tried and tried, but she failed to exert any kind of pressure on her opponent, who was strong on the serve.
Krunic was very strong on the serve the entire day, which was the key factor in her victory. Overall, it was a good battle that lasted almost three hours, but clearly, the American lacks matches as she only played one in the last two months, and this was a three-set loss, 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 4-6.