Jessica Pegula stays unbeaten at WTA Finals and confirms major news about Coco Gauff partnership

Shahida Jacobs
Jessica Pegula in action
Jessica Pegula of the United States reacts after winning a point

Jessica Pegula notched up her 101st victory on the 2023 WTA Tour season on Thursday as she went 3-0 in the group stage of the WTA Finals with victory over Maria Sakkari, but she is unlikely to hit those figures next year as she will focus more on singles.

Earlier in the week Pegula described herself as “psychotic” after learning that she had already played more than 130 matches (singles, doubles and mixed doubles combined) during the season.

“Oh my God,” the stunned American said. “What’s wrong with me? Like seriously. That’s … psychotic.”

But since then she has taken her tally to 133 (one singles and one doubles), although she won’t mind adding more matches to the total if she continues to produce performances like the one against Sakkari.

Pegula broke the Greek thrice in the first set although Sakkari also had her moments with two breaks herself while three more breaks followed in the second set of the 6-3, 6-2 victory.

She remains the only player to have qualified for the semi-final of the WTA Finals so far and either Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina will join her in the last four from the Bacalar Group.

The Sabalenka-Rybakina match was suspended due to heavy rain and wind in Cancun.

For now the number of matches hasn’t taken its toll on Pegula, but she is set to make changes to her playing schedule in 2024 as her doubles partnership with Coco Gauff will take a backseat.

The American duo are currently the No 1 doubles team in the world, but both want to focus on singles next year.

Pegula appeared on the Tennis Channel after her victory and was told that United States Billie Jean King Cup captain Lindsay Davenport suggested that she only focus on the singles at one Grand Slam next year and she replied: “She is not the first person to tell me that. I don’t know we’ll see.

“Obviously I played a ton [of matches] this year. Someone in the press told me that I played like a 120 matches combined [singles, doubles and mixed doubles].

“Next year, I think, Coco and I will probably play less doubles, want to try to focus on singles. It didn’t mean to happen like that, we just both started winning at both [singles and doubles] at the same time and we were playing all the same events.

“At the time we were just like ‘okay let’s play’ and then we would win and then we just keep playing.

“It wasn’t that intentional, but coming down to the end of this year we stopped playing as much, especially with Coco Gauff winning the US Open, you know, I’m sure she’s set on really doing well at the Slams, so we’ll see.

“We definitely want to play Olympics next year. I think maybe once we get past that we’ll rethink about it but yeah. It’s just gonna happen, so maybe Lindsay.”

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