By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 29, 2023
Jessica Pegula improved to 48-0 when she wins the opening set in 2023 with a straight sets win over Elena Rybakina.
Photo Source: Getty
In 2022 Jessica Pegula came to the WTA Finals at the conclusion of the best season of her tennis career. She exited swiftly, losing all six of her matches across singles and doubles.
This year she has set upon a more positive course in Cancun. The American surged past Elena Rybakina to kick off the singles event in Cancun, winning 10 of the final 12 games to notch an impressive 7-5, 6-2 win.
It was Rybakina who drew first blood, breaking for 5-3 in the opening set, but the Kazakh had very little resistance to offer from that point onward. Pegula broke back immediately and won 16 of the final 21 points of the opening set to take it, 7-5.
The Buffalo native kept up the pressure in the second set, winning the first two games and breaking three times to finish off her third career victory in four tries against Rybakina.
"I've already done better than last year, so that's kind of a monkey off my back," Pegula said.
Rybakina, making her WTA Finals debut, was broken five times and only won 56 percent of her first-serve points.
Rybakina and Pegula each hit 12 winners, but it was Rybakina’s inability to find the court that plagued her – she hit 35 unforced errors to just 16 for Pegula
Pegula earns her 42nd hard court win, which leads all WTA players in 2023. She is one of just three American woman to have notched 40 hard court wins in a season since 2000 (along with Lindsay Davenport in 2001 and Serena Williams in 2013).