By Ossian Shine
The U.S. Stars and Stripes fluttered feebly for Jessica Pegula at Wimbledon on Thursday as the fifth seed was ousted in the second round by China’s Wang Xinyu 6-4 6-7(9) 6-1 on American Independence Day.
The Chinese player blasted 38 winners which, combined with 33 unforced errors from Pegula, secured victory and a third round match-up against Harriet Dart who beat fellow Briton Katie Boulter in a tense three-set thriller.
For Wang, world number 42, the victory was her first over a top 10 player.
“Couple of days ago I was asking my coach when will this happen,” Wang said. “Jessica was really tough to play on grass. Her ball was super low and I’m just really happy I won in the end.”
For Pegula the loss was an ignominious crash back to earth on the back of some great form heading into the grasscourt Grand Slam.
In the Berlin lead-up event she saved five match points in the final to win her first career grass title with victory over Anna Kalinskaya and had high hopes of improving on last year’s quarter-final finish here.
(Reporting by Ossian Shine; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.