{"id":491595,"date":"2026-02-26T12:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491595\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:31:14","slug":"jessica-pegula-issues-public-apology-after-withdrawing-from-wta-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491595\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula issues public apology after withdrawing from WTA tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jessica Pegula has confirmed her withdrawal from the ATX Open, the WTA tournament she won in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Pegula had been scheduled to face Rebecca Sramkova in her first match of the WTA 250 event, which is now underway in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>But a left knee injury has forced the top seed out of the tournament, with Sramkova left to take on Yue Yuan.<\/p>\n<p>Lucky loser Yuan, who suffered defeat in qualifying for the ATX Open, recovered to beat Sramkova and reach the last 16.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"520\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/425b4d7539813e06e5693f0000a6c124.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Jessica Pegula apologises after ATX Open withdrawal<\/p>\n<p>Pegula meanwhile, who was on-site in Texas despite not being able to play, has apologised following her late withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>She posted on her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stories\/jpegula\/3839831529606995692\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram story;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram story<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry I\u2019ve had to pull out of the ATX Open.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved playing last year and Austin has become one of my favorite stops.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope to come back again soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She isn\u2019t the only high-profile withdrawal from the tournament in Texas, with Jelena Ostapenko also ruled out with injury.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The likes of Venus Williams and Bianca Andreescu did enter the competition, but both suffered losses in their opening matches.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Townsend and Iva Jovic both won their openers to reach the last 16, where they are joined by fellow Americans Peyton Stearns and Ashlyn Krueger among others.<\/p>\n<p>Jessica Pegula makes smart decision to withdraw from Austin<\/p>\n<p>The ATX Open has helped kick off the Sunshine Swing, taking place alongside the Merida Open in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>But Pegula has made the very sensible decision to avoid playing this week, even with a title defence at stake.<\/p>\n<p>It makes zero sense to play through injury, but a withdrawal was always going to be a wise choice following her exploits in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Pegula went all the way at the Dubai Tennis Championships, defeating Elina Svitolina in the final for her first title of the season.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"544\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6a5762833ebaba1db3af15dc6e5a1150.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The world number five is set to return at Indian Wells, which is immediately followed by the Miami Open, completing the Sunshine Swing.<\/p>\n<p>Pegula, who just celebrated her 32nd birthday, has now hugely impressively reached the semifinals of her last seven tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/venus-williams-rates-her-level-193000686.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Venus Williams rates her level after losing her first three matches of the season;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venus Williams rates her level after losing her first three matches of the season<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula has confirmed her withdrawal from the ATX Open, the WTA tournament she won in 2025. Pegula&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2934,74827,23004,52575,209792,99,225317,428,9518,108363],"class_list":["post-491595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-getty-images","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-knee-injury","tag-rebecca-sramkova","tag-sports","tag-sramkova","tag-tennis","tag-venus-williams","tag-yue-yuan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}