Jessica Pegula explains why she will no longer be playing doubles with Coco Gauff.
The Americans both reached No. 1 in the doubles rankings and have won five titles together.
But they suffered a shock early exit at the Olympics and Pegula has now confirmed that they will no longer be teaming up for the rest of the season.
Pegula found a temporary partner in Giuliana Olmos for last week’s Canadian Open. They lost in the quarter-final but the American went on to lift the trophy in singles, successfully defending the title she won last year.
Looking ahead to the rest of her doubles future, the 30-year-old admitted things were uncertain as she explained why decided to stop playing together. Pegula said: “For me, I’m not sure.
“I know Coco doesn’t really, isn’t interested in playing, or at least I’m not, we’re not thinking of playing, so I probably will take it easy on the doubles the rest of the year, so, yeah, we’ll see.”
The world No. 6 will use it as an opportunity to prioritise her singles game instead. “I think I’ll just play maybe whenever I kind of want to,” she laughed. “And maybe just focus on singles the rest of the year.”
While Pegula entered the doubles draw in Toronto, Gauff stuck to singles only. And she isn’t planning to play any doubles for the foreseeable future. “No, I’m not going to be playing doubles,” the 20-year-old said in Canada.
“I just, the goal was to try to get as good as possible for the Olympics and then, yeah. Every week, week-in and week-out, I’m making the end of the week, if I’m playing singles and doubles usually I’m there at the semis at least in one event. Yeah, it’s just tough to go week-in and week-out on tour, so that’s the reason why. But maybe next year I’ll play here and there. I won’t be playing doubles as consistently as I have been in the past.”
