Top-seeded Jessica Pegula and second-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia are scheduled to play their first singles matches in the 2024 Cymbiotika San Diego Open Wednesday at Barnes Tennis Center.
Pegula will face German qualifier Jule Niemeier in the day’s final match on the Barnes Stadium court beginning at 7 p.m. or later, following the match between Haddad Maia and Katie Boulter, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. or later.
Pegula will be playing singles for the first time since Jan. 18, when she lost a second-round match at the Australian Open to Clara Burel, 6-4, 6-2. She had been sidelined due to a neck injury.
Pegula and fellow American Desirae Krawczyk are the top seeds in doubles and won their first-round match Tuesday, defeating Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Fang-Hsien Wu of Taiwan, 4-6, 6-3, 10-2.
Pegula is fifth on the Women’s Tennis Association singles rankings. Niemeier is ranked 126th. This will be the first meeting between the two.
Haddad Maia is ranked 13th, 36 spots ahead of Boulter. This will be the first meeting between the two.
Each of the top four seeds in the 28-player draw received first-round byes.
One other seeded singles player is set to be in action Wednesday — sixth-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, who will face Australian Taylah Preston at 1 p.m. in the first match of the day at Barnes Stadium. Preston received a wild card because at 153rd, she was ranked too low to receive a berth in the main draw without having the qualify.
The second-round singles winners are guaranteed at least $24,910 while the losers will receive $13,590.
In Tuesday’s first-round singles play, fifth-seeded Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska defeated American Caroline Dolehide, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in a 2 hour, 8 minute match, and seventh-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia was a 7-5, 6-2 winner over Katherine Hui, a 2023 Santa Fe Christian High School graduate, Stanford freshman and 2023 U.S. Open girls’ singles champion, who was playing her first WTA main draw match.
“It was definitely a really good learning experience,” Hui said. “Donna’s a great player. I’ve watched her a lot. I knew that I had to being my A game. I’m a little disappointed with the result and I definitely think there are some things I can work on but, overall, it was really nice being able to play at home with the crowd.”
Eighth-seeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez retired from her match against Tatjana Maria of Germany due to a left shoulder injury.
Fernandez won the 82-minute first set 7-6 (7), then took an immediate medical timeout, lost the first four games of the second set, then ended the match.
Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki lost to Anna Blinkova, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, in her 11th match following a more than 3 1/2-year retirement
In her first match since losing to Russian qualifier Maria Timofeeva in the second round of the Australian Open Jan. 17, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, the 33-year- old Dane won eight of the first nine games before the 25-year-old Russian took control.
“It was a crazy match,” the 51st-ranked Blinkova said. “She started really well. She was outplaying me. She was much better than me in the first set. I couldn’t find solutions. I was down a set and 2-love, but I was just telling myself to not give up, that it’s never too late to come back. I was thinking positively and fighting for every point.”
Wozniacki has a 5-6 record since returning to play in August in the Canadian Open, where she lost in the second round. She is ranked 206th after being ranked 632nd when she returned to the rankings Aug. 14 and 256th on Jan. 1.
Wozniacki also received a wild card to be included in the 28-player draw.
Wozniacki had three reigns at No. 1 from 2010-12 and in 2018, holding the ranking for 71 weeks.
Wozniacki announced on Dec. 6, 2019 that she would retire at age 29 after the following month’s Australian Open, which she reached the third round.
The first-round singles winners are guaranteed at least $13,590 while the losers will receive $9,820.
The tournament is set to conclude Sunday. The winner will receive $142,000.
–City News Service