Jessica Pegula out of Middle East swing after neck injury, withdraws from Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and Qatar Open

While Jessica Pegula was confirmed to play in San Diego in the coming weeks, the World No.4 won't be heading to the Middle East this year and has withdrawn from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and Qatar Open in Doha due to a neck injury.

This has a knock on effect for the top American who is set to lose valuable ranking points having lost in the final of the Qatar Open to Iga Swiatek last year. It transitions to a WTA 1000 tournament in 2024 which slightly softens the blow, but she also reached the semi-finals in Dubai losing to Barbora Krejcikova meaning that a double dose of points will fall off. She joins Madison Keys, Petra Kvitova and Belinda Bencic in being the main absentees with the latter two of course being out due to pregnancy.

Pegula wasn't herself at the Australian Open as she was dumped out by Clara Burel last month with ease and withdrew from the women's doubles alongside Coco Gauff. She has not been in action since and has also battled with fitness issues stemming from having stomach flu at the Adelaide International. She also did not look 100% at the United Cup where she lost shockingly to Katie Boulter.

She is currently slated for the San Diego Open like alluded to which begins a week after Doha finishes on February 25 ahead of Indian Wells, but a race against time to get ready for the Sunshine Double means that she may decide still to snub the tournament if she is not yet back to 100%. But given her ranking slide incoming, she may need all the points she can get.