Jessica Pegula criticized the WTA Finals qualification system. The recent US Open finalist reached her career-high ranking as World No. 3 after winning the Canadian Open and finishing runner-up at both the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.
Pegula has recorded 17 wins and only three losses in her last 20 matches since Wimbledon. The American has shown consistent form in recent months, securing the 6th place in the WTA Race, putting her in a strong position to qualify for her third consecutive WTA Finals, which brings together the season’s top 8 players.
Pegula questions fairness of WTA Finals system
In 2023, Pegula achieved consecutive victories against Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, and Maria Sakkari to advance from the round-robin stage to the semifinals. After easily defeating Coco Gauff, she reached the final against Iga Świątek, where the Polish star took the title with a commanding 6-1, 6-0 performance.
Pegula will have to defend 1,080 points in Riyadh. A few weeks ago, it seemed unlikely that she would qualify, as a neck injury forced her to miss several tournaments (including 5 of the season’s WTA 1000 events) and the entire clay swing, including the French Open.
“I’m not really one to look at points or what it takes to defend them every week,” said Pegula upon her arrival in Wuhan for the last WTA 1000 tournament of the season. “But the one thing that was kind of a bummer a few months ago was that you have to qualify for the WTA Finals to be able to defend the points.
“So I was just thinking ‘that’s going to suck to not have a chance to defend any of it.’ I was not too happy about that, and it left me a little down about the whole thing.”
At her lowest point of the season, Pegula had fallen out of the top 15 in the WTA Race, which would have prevented her from competing to defend her Finals points.
However, her recent strong performances have allowed her to climb the rankings, and her participation in Riyadh now seems almost certain, with more than 1,000 points separating her from challengers Emma Navarro and Zheng Qinwen, who are expected to battle for the final spot at the Finals until the last week. Still, Pegula cannot take her qualification for granted yet.
The American has three tournaments remaining before the WTA Finals and needs to maintain her level in the final weeks. The American No. 1 emphasized in a press conference that her great run at Flushing Meadows is already in the past: “The US Open final seems like so long ago, and it’s like we’ve already moved on to the next thing,” she said. “Tennis can be like that, in a good way if you’ve had a bad week, but in a brutal way if you’ve had a great couple of weeks. I think I played some good tennis in Beijing, so I want to keep building on that.”