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Jessica Pegula was back on court after celebrating her 30th birthday on Saturday, February 24. The American, along with partner Desirae Krawczyk, defeated Shuko Aoyama and Wu Fang-hsien in the Round of 16 in the doubles format at the 2024 San Diego Open on Wednesday, February 28.
Before this event, Pegula was last seen on court at the 2024 Australian Open, where she lost to Clara Burel in the second round. She suffered a neck injury and consequently withdrew from her opening-round doubles match with Coco Gauff at the Melbourne Major.
The World No. 5 is making a comeback at the tournament in San Diego, and the top seed duo earned a quarterfinal spot with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 victory over the opposing team.
A fan took to social media to share a clip of the Americans winning the match point and highlighted it as Pegula's first win after turning 30.
"First victory in the 30s" wrote a fan with heart-eye emojis for Pegula on X (formerly Twitter)
Pegula re-shared the fan's post with a caption of her own.
"Dirty 30's here I come," wrote Jessica Pegula with a smiling-face-with-horns emoji.
Pegula and Krawczyk will next clash with Claire Liu and Kayla Day in an all-American showdown in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 1.
Jessica Pegula parts ways with coach David Witt, joins forces with Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein
Jessica Pegula announced her decision to part ways with coach David Witt in a media interaction ahead of the 2024 San Diego Open. The former World No. 3 is now training under former ATP Tour players-turned-coaches Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein.
Witt notably coached Venus Williams before taking Pegula under his wings. Pegula saw a steady rise from being outside the Top 50 to entering the Top 10 under Witt's tutelage from 2019 to 2024.
Speaking about the changes in her coaching team, Pegula said:
"Right now, I am working in a combination with this guy, Mark Merklein and also Mark Knowles. You guys must be familiar with them. Both of them can't really travel full time, so kinda still in the process of figuring that out."
"But, both Mark(s), one is based in Boca [Raton], so that is also really very helpful because that's where I live in. It's been nice to have that set up and Mark Knowles is in Dallas, so I actually just spent a week there a few weeks ago," she added.
Pegula will kick off her singles campaign at the San Diego Open with a Round-of-16 clash against Jule Niemeier.
