Gauff Explain Why She Loses The Berlin Title To Jessica Pegula …
Pegula beats Gauff before saving 5 match points to win Berlin title
In just her second tournament back after missing the WTA Tour’s European clay swing with a rib injury, Jessica Pegula won the Berlin title Sunday in dramatic fashion. The American pulled double duty on the WTA 500 tournament’s final day, beating Coco Gauff in a rain-delayed semifinal before saving five match points to edge Anna Kalinskaya in the championship round.
Against her longtime doubles partner and compatriot Gauff, Pegula earned a 7-5, 7-6(2) win to score her first Top 10 win of the year and improve to 4-1 in their head-to-head series. As tight as that match was, it was a breeze compared to the final.
In a 6-7(0), 6-4, 7-6(3) victory against Kalinskaya, Pegula saved five match points in the final set to win her fifth career title and her first of 2024. After battling back from 4-1 down in the third, Pegula saved four match points at 5-4 and another at 6-5. From 3-2 down in the decisive tiebreak, Pegula’s consistency under pressure helped her win the last five points of the contest.
“I knew I could play well on this surface and giving myself a couple of extra weeks on grass clearly paid off,” Pegula said of her Berlin run. “I played some really good tennis this week and I feel like I beat some really good girls, especially on grass. To be able to gut out a win like that is cool.”
The victory solidified Pegula’s place at No. 5 in the WTA rankings, two spots off her career high of No. 3, first achieved in 2022. Next up for the American is Wimbledon, where she reached the singles quarterfinals for the first time last season.
Jessica Pegula lifts the 2024 Berlin singles trophy. Photo by Inaki Esnaola/Getty Images. Jessica Pegula lifts the 2024 Berlin singles trophy. Photo by Inaki Esnaola/Getty Images.
“This is the most grass-court confidence that I’ve had probably going into Wimbledon,” Pegula said. “Hopefully that pays off as well. Being able to tough out a couple of matches and have a couple of long matches, especially for the body to get ready, and dealing with a lot of the rain delays too. That’s always possible at Wimbledon as well, so that was good prep mentally as well.
“I feel like I’ve been through a lot this week, so if I could handle this week I think at Wimbledon I should feel pretty good.”
Pegula is set for the fifth seed at Wimbledon, where she will be one of five seeded American women alongside Gauff, Danielle Collins, Madison Keys and Emma Navarro.
