The Wimbledon Championships often produce unlikely results, with higher-ranked players taking surprising losers to young upstarts. However, American tennis star Jessica Pegula claims to have correctly foreseen one of these upsets coming.
Rising Russian star Mirra Andreeva suffered a shocking upset loss on opening day at SW 19, as she fell to Czech star Brenda Fruhvirtova in their first round encounter. The 17-year old Czech star rallied from a set down to stun the 24th seed, advancing to the second round behind a 1-6 6-3 6-2 victory.
The World No.5 is known for her love of breaking down and analyzing tournament draws ahead of time, a rarity among most players. In a press interview after her opening round win over compatriot Ashlynn Krueger, the American stated she had correctly picked Fruhvirtova to defeat the more experienced Andreeva.
"That was my special pick, and she won," revealed Pegula. "I was like, 'Oh, that was a good pick by me.' [I picked Fruhvirtova] because they're the same age. I know that at least when I was that age, it's different when you're playing girls older than you and you have nothing to lose. Then all of a sudden you play somebody that's pretty good, that's coming up, that's also your age -- sometimes it can just be different.
"I think also to that point, for [Andreeva], she probably wasn't the underdog for the first time since she's probably been on tour. I'm sure that was a little bit of a different experience for her."
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