Days after winning the Bad Hamburg tournament, American Jessica Pegula is headed home after a stunning first-round defeat by Elisabetta Cocciaretto at Wimbledon.
Cocciaretto, a 24-year-old Italian ranked No. 116 in the world, defeated the No. 3 seed 6-2, 6-3 in an efficient 58 minutes. Pegula was coming off the Bad Hamburg tournament title on grass, where she beat Iga Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam winner, in the final.
‘She played absolutely incredible tennis,’ Pegula said of Cocciaretto. ‘Do I think I played the best match ever? No. But I definitely don’t think I was playing bad. It wasn’t like I was playing that bad.
‘She just was hitting her shots and going for it, serving big, serving high percentage, going big second serves, redirecting the ball. It was just her day, I honestly think.’
Pegula had just five winners in the match, made 24 unforced errors, and didn’t convert a single break point. It was her first opening round defeat at a Grand Slam since the 2020 French Open.
With the victory, Cocciaretto became the first Italian woman to beat a top 3 seed at Wimbledon in the Open Era and to defeat a WTA Top-3 player at any major since the 2015 US Open.