Jessica Pegula insisted that she wasn't crying as she walked off the court following her defeat at the
US Open.
The World No. 3 faced seventeenth seed
Madison Keys in the Round of 16 at Flushing Meadows and struggled to get a game on the board in the opening set. Although she managed to hold one of her service games, Keys broke her twice and took the first set 6-1.
Pegula was able to push back a little in the second set but was ultimately broken again. She did break back immediately to level the set, but Keys stayed one step ahead of her and broke back once more to take the lead, where she stayed until she won the match 6-1, 6-3.
Pegula's actions misinterpreted
Throughout the match, Pegula looked frustrated and fed up, with a grim expression set on her face even when she broke Keys in the second set. Nevertheless, she smiled at her opponent and compatriot as they shook hands at the net before Pegula left the court.
As she exited Arthur Ashe, the 29-year-old touched her eye to remove something in it, although some misinterpreted the action as her wiping a tear away. This led The Tennis Podcast to post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the American was crying as she left the court.
However, Pegula wanted to clear things up in her post-match press conference. Therefore, when journalists from The Tennis Podcast started to speak to her, she asked them:
"Were you guys the ones that tweeted that I cried when I walked off the court?"
Pegula insists she wasn't crying
This question was met with an awkward silence. While the journalists in the room replied that they were, they clarified that they didn't do the tweets for the site so were unaware of what had been posted.
Pegula replied saying "It just sounded really sad, I definitely wasn’t crying. I just got waxed in like an hour," with 'waxed' meaning to be defeated decisively.
Pegula also said that she was thinking about how she had to play doubles an hour after being ousted from the women's singles event, where she and her partner
Coco Gauff beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Marta Kostyuk to reach the women's doubles quarter-finals.
The Tennis Podcast have since deleted their tweet and amended their mistake, writing:
"Jessica Pegula clarified to us just now that she was not crying as she left the court. I was on BBC commentary at the time, saw her touch her eye as she left and also thought she was wiping a tear away, but it was just something in her eye. Wanted to set that straight."