Jessica Pegula will not be making a run at
Wimbledon this year despite her recent good form on grass with the World No.5 being dumped out at the second round stage by Xinyu Wang, the current World No.40.
Pegula only recently returned from injury but returned to the winners circle quite quickly sealing Berlin after an early exit in Rosmalen the week prior. She was defeated though by Emma Raducanu at Eastbourne but showed form again by thrashing Ashlyn Krueger in her opening round.
But it wasn't to be today as she was easily defeated in a deciding set by the Chinese ace, a part of a cluster talents including Xiyu Wang, Yue Yuan among others who sit just under the leading name Qinwen Zheng and it could yet be a breakout tournament. It was a 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 win for Wang who was defeated in a second set tie-break but rallied to hand the initiative back to herself in the end.
It was a typical Pegula display which sometimes backfires. She often can win first and middle sets then be thrashed in the next one and in this case it was to lose the match. She led for the majority of the second set going 4-2 and 5-4 up but saw the lead reversed with her opponent serving for the match but Pegula broke back. She edged the tie-break. But instead of rallying her, it saw her break down as she was easily into a 5-0 deficit in less than half an hour. Pegula got a game on the board to spare her blushes slightly. But she was still soundly beaten.
In other matches,
Anna Kalinskaya continually watched by her boyfriend Jannik Sinner sealed victory over Marie Bouzkova. It was a 6-4, 6-1 win for the 17th seed. She now faces Elina Avanesyan or Liudmila Samsonova.
Earlier today, Paula Badosa, Daria Kasatkina, Marta Kostyuk and Madison Keys were the main high profile winners. Harriet Dart and Katie Boulter are into the latter stages of their tie while Ons Jabeur has just begun against Robin Montgomery.