Jessica Pegula shared the reason why chose not to compete at the French Open.
The American has not played since April’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers after suffering a rib injury.
This was a huge blow after she began to gain some momentum by reaching the quarterfinals or better at three of her past four tournaments.
The 30-year-old opted to make her return on the grass at the Netherlands’ Libema Open and is keen to build her form on the surface ahead of Wimbledon.
The World number five made the best possible start by beating World number 70 Aliaksandra Sasnovich to claim her first match win in two months.
Why did Jessica Pegula not play the French Open?
Pegula’s rib injury forced her to miss the rest of the clay court season after reaching the semi-finals of the Charleston Open. After the Billie Jean King Cup, she did not pick up a racket for four weeks.
However, the player’s since revealed that she trained with the goal to be ready to compete at the recently-concluded French Open, but it was too soon for her to make a return.
“It’s just such a crazy year with the Olympics squeezed in. With my game, I’d rather be ready for grass and the rest of the hard-court season and grind out the rest of the year, than try and push it for clay and it doesn’t feel good,” Pegula told reporters.
“That’s why we played it safe. We were training as though I was going to play the French, but it was just a little too soon. I’ve been healthy for a few weeks now. If French had started a week later I would have been there for sure.”
What is Jessica Pegula’s grass court record?
Pegula has played 42 grass court matches in her career and has won 24, giving her a win percentage of 57%. Her best result at Wimbledon is a quarter-finals appearance in 2023.
Her latest win on the surface came in the opening round of the Libema Open, where she made a winning return to action with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Sasnovich.
Her solid performance included nine winners and six unforced errors and she broke her opponent’s five times from seven break points.
“I was doing a lot of on-court movement stuff, which was really good because when I came back to playing it didn’t feel like I wasn’t playing,” Pegula added.
“I’ve done that before where I take a few weeks off and it’s a rough first week where you just feel so bad. But this time I felt pretty good.”
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