Jessica Pegula has withdrawn from her match against Iga Swiatek at the WTA Finals after dropping out of contention to win the tournament. Her hopes of glory went up in smoke on Tuesday when she lost to Barbora Krejcikova in straight sets.
Pegula was due to face Swiatek in her next match on Thursday but has officially withdrawn due to a left knee injury. It means she will be unable to fight for the £270,000 prize on offer to the winner of the round-robin match.
Speaking to the WTA website, Pegula explained: “I’ve just been kind of struggling with a little bit of an injury and for whatever reason, it kind of really flared up this week. Not really sure why.
“In the few days before practice it felt really, really good, but it started creeping up right before my first match and I just feel ike I’m not feeling comfortable moving on court.”
Pegula will be replaced by alternate Daria Kasatkina, who was set to earn over £174,000 for just being on standby but will now get the opportunity to compete for an even bigger payout.
It seems unlikely that Pegula will play again before the end of this year, having recently announced her withdrawal from next week’s Billie Jean King Cup. She will be hoping to return in early 2025 ahead of the Australian Open, which gets underway in mid-January.
Pegula qualified for the WTA Finals after a strong second half of the campaign which saw her win titles in Berlin and Toronto. She also reached the final in Cincinnati before finishing as the runner-up at the US Open, losing to Aryna Sabalenka.
Kasatkina, meanwhile, will be hoping to ruin Swiatek’s hopes of making it through to the knockout stages by pulling off an upset victory. The latter is hoping to rebound after a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Coco Gauff in her second match in Riyadh.
If Swiatek beats Kasatkina and Gauff defeats Krejcikova, it would send the Pole through to the semi-finals. However, any other combination of results would see Swiatek crash out of the tournament and put Gauff and Krejcikova into the last four.
