The Women’s Singles Season 2 draw has lost another key figure, 12 months after world number five and quarter-finalist Jessica Pegula lost to the Clay Court Doubles Grand Slam Champion Wang Xinyu.
Wang will face Harriet Dutt in Saturday’s third round, and while, on paper at least, she won’t be as strong for the Briton as the world number five, Wang’s forehand is particularly powerful. Not to be underestimated.
Pegula celebrated Independence Day with a win at the start of the match, but it was clear from the start that the American wasn’t playing her best on court three. Or even her C-level game, for that matter. As Wang’s crisp forehand found the baseline and her own error count began to climb, Pegula’s body language spoke of an increasingly anxious fifth seed. s story.
Wang broke Pegula’s serve for the first of at least six times in the seventh game. The American saved the first two of three break points at Love-40, but she couldn’t handle a pinpoint return on the third break point.
After three games, Wang Junkai served to win the set. Although the Chinese player nervously lost the opening point, Pegula missed the perfect opportunity to exert pressure and tentatively hit the net with his forehand. The opponent eventually tied the serve at 30.
The second set started strangely. Both players started the match in doubles, breaking serve a total of four times, and the score came to 4-4. Although Pegula fought fiercely in the ninth game and saved five break points, She was broken again and left in the eleventh game. Now Wang’s nerves were starting to falter, and a double fault at 15-40 sealed his defeat in tragic fashion.
It proved to be a brilliant tie-break, with thunderous shots from both sides of the net swinging first one way and then the other. A match point came and went in Wang’s serve, and Pegula was tied at 1-1.
Already on the brink of victory, this could have been a turning point for Vera Wang, but she just recovered from the heavy blow of the first set and quickly chased the score to 4-0. In the second service game, her nerves recovered slightly, but from 15-40, Wang Weiwei fought back to equalize, and after saving the third break point, a hard-hit serve on the third match point set the stage. Winning advantage.
In the same quarter, defeated 2022 and 2023 finalist Ons Jabeur eased into the third round with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Robin Montgomery, while the 2022 champion , seeded player Elena Rybakina (Elena Rybakina) will face Iga Swiatek (Iga Swiatek) In the semi-finals, the No. 1 seed lost to Laura Sigmund in the second set, But in the end they won 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Jabr, who has battled recurring injuries to her right knee for much of the past five years, said after the win that she has now come to terms with playing through pain.
“I just accepted the pain in my knee,” Jabbour said. “Maybe you see me running well on the pitch, but sometimes it’s harder than other days.
“It’s definitely a part of me now. I think mentally a big part of it is accepting that I’m going to always have knee pain.
“The schedule and number of events they’re adding now doesn’t really help. I’m really curious how the players are going to compete in the Olympics and the hard court season. It’s going to be very tough.
Swiatek, meanwhile, reached the third round – a match in which she was unexpectedly eliminated two years ago – with a routine 6-4, 6-3 victory over Petra Matic on Center Court.
