WTA Finals: Ons Jabeur vs Jessica Pegula Match Preview

By John


 Iga Swiatek defeated Daria Kasatkina yesterday in two straight sets 6-2, 6-4 starting on a high gear. In the early hours of today, Carolina Garcia upset Coco Guaff defeating her in two straight sets 6-4 6-3.

Later today Ons Jabeur (WTA:2) and Jessica Pegula (WTA:3) will go head to head to determine who stays in it.

Fottennis gives you the prediction of this interesting matchup


Jessica Pegula started her WTA Finals debut with a 7-6, 7-6 defeat to Maria Sakkari in two hours and 11 minutes, a brutal result particularly after rallying from 0-3 in the second set. It was a stark turnaround from eight days ago when she easily defeated the Greek in the Guadalajara 1000 final.


The American, who is also competing in doubles this week, must avoid another straight-set defeat to keep her singles campaign alive. She arrived in Fort Worth with an impressive 42 match wins in the season, 36 of which came at the tour's biggest tournaments: Grand Slams and WTA 1000s.


She is 2-12 against top 5 opponents careerwise, with the lone wins coming in the first half of the 2021 season: Elina Svitolina at the Australian Open and Naomi Osaka in Rome. She remains a sizable force in North American hard courts, coming into Texas with multiple wins in her last five outings.


Ons Jabeur was two points away from victory at 5-3 in the second set tiebreak and a point away from leading 5-2 in the decider. And yet the world no. 2 endured a crushing 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 defeat to Aryna Sabalenka in the evening session on Monday, a tough way to begin her WTA Finals debut.


She missed out on the 2021 year-end championships after coming down with an elbow injury. The 28-year-old comfortably sealed her participation this year after winning Madrid and making the finals at Wimbledon, US Open, and Rome - despite not receiving any points for Wimbledon.


She is still very much in contention for the semifinals but must overcome her poor run of form against top 10 players. The Tunisian has now lost six of her seven meetings with such opponents this season, only beating Maria Sakkari in Rome in May, considerably worse off than last year (5-5).


Head-to-head: Ons Jabeur leads 3-2. Jessica Pegula won their first two matches in Canada's Quebec City in 2018 and Montreal in 2021 (Ons Jabeur served for win). It is the Tunisian who has edged their last three meetings, including in this year's Dubai second round and Madrid final.






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