No.5 seed Jessica Pegula needed only 49 minutes to storm into the second round of Wimbledon, dismissing fellow American Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-0 and beating the rain that began falling less than half an hour after she completed her win.
Wimbledon 2024: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Afterwards, Pegula wasn't just on a high from her on-court victory, but some solid prediction work. A rarity among players in that she enjoys breaking down tournament draws ahead of time, Pegula had called Brenda Fruhvirtova's 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 first-round upset of No.24 seed Mirra Andreeva.
"That was my special pick, and she won," Pegula told press. "I was like, 'Oh, that was a good pick by me.' [I picked Fruhvirtova] because they're the same age. I know that at least when I was that age, it's different when you're playing girls older than you and you have nothing to lose. Then all of a sudden you play somebody that's pretty good, that's coming up, that's also your age -- sometimes it can just be different.
"I think also to that point, for [Andreeva], she probably wasn't the underdog for the first time since she's probably been on tour. I'm sure that was a little bit of a different experience for her."
Pegula, who lifted her first Hologic WTA Tour grass-court trophy in Berlin two weeks ago, will next face Wang Xinyu, who defeated Viktoriya Tomova 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-0. Wang has now defeated Tomova three times in the past three months, all in three sets, following her wins in Madrid and Roland Garros.
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Here are the key numbers from Pegula's opening win.
86%: Pegula was near-impregnable on serve, winning 86% of her first-serve points and 71% behind her second delivery. In total, she dropped just seven points on serve; not only did Pegula avoid facing even one break point, but she was not taken to deuce on serve at any point. She slammed down five aces, including one to convert her first match point.
43%: In terms of pure pace, Krueger had the edge on serve. The 20-year-old averaged a first-serve speed of 105 mph compared to Pegula's 98mph, and her fastest delivery even got up to 110mph. However, its efficiency was some distance behind. Krueger only won 43% of the points behind both her first and second deliveries; she faced a break point in all but one of her service games, and only succeeded in holding twice.
Afterwards, Pegula broke down her return strategy to the press in terms of how much she had studied Krueger's patterns ahead of the match and how much she relied on her mid-match instincts.
"It's a little bit of both," she said. "I know that I think, thought at least, that she likes the slice serve a little bit more. On grass it's the better serve; my forehand return, I feel like sometimes it can be good, but maybe I make a few more errors on that side. But it's more dangerous. I thought she would kind of start that way. I wanted to take that away at the beginning of the match. It definitely comes down to a lot of prep.
"I've played several matches where maybe it starts off that way and then they change it up because they realize it's not working. At the same time, I think you have to adapt and just be aware of where they're going, but also be aware of where they're serving a lot. Especially early on, especially on big points, or when they're down in a game -- what's their favorite serve? You want to just keep that in the back of your mind sometimes for bigger moments throughout the match."
Pegula cruises through 🇺🇸
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 2, 2024
The No.5 seed needs just 50 minutes to beat Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-0#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/ScHM08hwSG
29: Off the ground, Krueger was unable to find any consistency with her powerful groundstrokes, committing 29 unforced errors against only seven winners. Towards the end of the first set, trailing 5-1 she found some semblance of range as she fought off two set points; but Pegula merely tightened her grip on the match in the second set. Utilizing the slice to blunt Krueger's power and to set up her own forehand, Pegula tallied 17 winners to eight unforced errors.
15: Pegula extended her winning streak in the first round of Grand Slams to 15, dating back to the 2020 US Open. The 30-year-old was forced to skip this year's clay swing due to injury, but has bounced back strongly; her grass record this season now stands at six wins to two losses.
0-6: Krueger is still searching for her first victory in the main draw of a major. After winning her first WTA title in Osaka last September, she has consolidated her Top 100 position this year with a solid 17-17 overall record. However, she is now 0-6 at Grand Slam main draw level.