American third seed Jessica Pegula admitted her shock straight-sets defeat against Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the Wimbledon first round was her ‘worst result of the year.’
Pegula was demolished 6-2, 6-3 by the World No. 116 in just 58 minutes on Tuesday. It was a bitter blow for the 2024 US Open finalist, who has never been past the quarter-finals at the All England Club.
Elisabetta Cocciaretto
Lacklustre performance
The 31-year-old played with heavy strapping on her right knee and never looked comfortable during her lacklustre performance. “She played incredible tennis. Do I think I played the best match ever? No. But I wasn’t that bad. It was just her day today,” Pegula said.
“I think I could have served better, but I was having trouble with the conditions. It was very humid and the court was slow. I tried my best to match her level and I thought I would close the gap in the second set. But she didn’t drop her level at all. She was forcing a lot of my errors,” said the American.
Poor run of results
Since losing last year’s US Open final against Aryna Sabalenka, World No. 3 Pegula has been eliminated before the quarter-finals in all three of her Grand Slam appearances.
“It’s probably the worst result I’ve had all year. I haven’t lost in the first round of a Slam for a long time. That sucks,” she said. “I feel like I’m playing as well as I was at the end of last year. But sometimes it doesn’t align,” she added.
It was Cocciaretto’s second win against a top-10 player. The 24-year-old has never been past the third round at Wimbledon and her best Grand Slam performance was a run to the last 16 at last year’s French Open.
Other results
. Katerina Siniakova beat Qinwen Zheng 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
. Iga Swiatek beat Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-1
. Barbora Krejcikova beat Alexandre Eala 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
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