Jessica Pegula suffered a disappointing early exit at the Australian Open, but that hasn’t stopped her from tuning into the Grand Slam.
Pegula loved Danielle Collins’s provocative behaviour at the tournament, having watched her compatriot spark fury among many Australian Open fans.
But a part of the former will be gutted to have suffered such an early defeat, with WTA number six Pegula losing to Olga Danilovic in round three.
Along with the Australian Open singles event, Pegula has also been keeping an eye on the women’s doubles.
And the third round clash involving world doubles number two Erin Routliffe and her partner Gabriela Dabrowski particularly grabbed her attention, when the former was left shocked upon learning that no electronic let calls are in place at the event.
Jessica Pegula shocked at lack of net machine at Australian Open
At 1-1 in a first-set tiebreak, Routliffe was bemused when a Beatriz Haddad Maia was not electronically called.
Informed by the umpire that no net technology is in place to call lets, the world doubles number two exclaimed: “Oh my God, we have robots everywhere and we don’t have them for the net?”
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And sharing the altercation on X, an equally surprised Pegula wrote: “We have cameras in every player area and everywhere we turn but we don’t have a net machine?”
Jessica Pegula echoes Alexander Zverev shock at no Australian Open let machine
Routliffe and Dabrowski went on to lose that first-set tiebreak, but recovered to beat 15th seeds Haddad Maia and Laura Siegemend 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.
The 29-year-old did, at least, manage to see the funny side, with Routliffe writing on X: “I feel like I have a point but also why so dramatic.”
Pegula and Routliffe are certainly not alone in their dismay, with Alexander Zverev calling the lack of a let machine “absolutely ridiculous”.
His quarter-final opponent Tommy Paul meanwhile also didn’t know about the rule during that match, which the American lost to Zverev.
Technology has already stolen the limelight at the 2025 Australian Open, with the men’s doubles match of Tristan Schoolkate and Adam Walton versus Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek briefly paused due to the electronic line calling having been mistakenly set up for a singles match.
Home favourite Jordan Thompson and his opponent Dominik Koepfer meanwhile were both left frustrated when the foot fault system failed in their first round encounter, although the crowd loved it.
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