{"id":60582,"date":"2026-08-30T20:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/60582\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T20:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:05:13","slug":"jessica-pegula-shakes-off-nerves-to-win-her-opening-match-at-the-us-open-vs-elena-gabriela-ruse-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/60582\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula shakes off nerves to win her opening match at the US Open vs. Elena-Gabriela Ruse"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Third-ranked Jessica Pegula<\/a> shook off nerves that contributed to a slow start against Elena-Gabriela Ruse<\/a>, winning her opening match at the U.S. Open<\/a> on Sunday in straight sets.<\/p>\n

Leading off at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 32-year-old American missed her first nine opportunities to break Ruse but found a rhythm and began dominating. Coming off a trip to the final at the Cincinnati Open, which she lost to Coco Gauff<\/a>, Pegula won 92% of her first-serve points on the way to a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 83 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so nervous,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cI was like sending GIFs of what I felt like. It was GIFs of people freaking out and stuff. … The first round of a slam, there’s always a ton of nerves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe a little more this time, given what’s at stake.<\/p>\n

Pegula leads the women’s tour with 46 wins this season. She has two titles and has reached three other finals. Pegula can become No. 1 in the women’s rankings if she wins her first major title and No. 2 Elena Rybakina<\/a> loses before the semifinals. <\/p>\n

Pegula next faces the winner of the match between Venus Williams<\/a> and fellow wild card Sofia Kenin<\/a>. They\u2019re set to play in the nightcap at Ashe, and Williams and sister Serena are scheduled to play doubles together.<\/p>\n

A Sunday start but the champions don’t begin until Monday<\/p>\n

It was the second year of a Sunday start, though some of the biggest headliners don\u2019t begin until Monday. Two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> plays her opening match against Camila Osorio<\/a>, before Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, who won his second U.S. Open<\/a> title last year, plays his first singles match since April after recovering from a right wrist injury.<\/p>\n

Past U.S. Open champions Naomi Osaka<\/a>, Iga Swiatek<\/a>, Sloane Stephens<\/a> and Stan Wawrinka<\/a> are also on the Monday schedule, along with Wimbledon women\u2019s champion Linda Noskova<\/a> and men\u2019s contenders such as Ben Shelton<\/a>, Arthur Fils<\/a>, Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> and Frances Tiafoe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other early winners Sunday included No. 19 Jasmine Paolini<\/a> and No. 31 Leylah Fernandez<\/a>, the 2021 U.S. Open runner-up. But No. 27 seed Barbora Krejcikova<\/a>, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, lost 7-6 (4), 6-2 to Kamilla Rakhimova<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On the men\u2019s side, Daniil Medvedev<\/a> was up next at Ashe against Hugo Gaston<\/a>. Novak Djokovic begins his quest for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title on Sunday night against Mariano Navone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Djokovic at 39 most recently lost his opening match earlier this month at Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

Maric Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, and 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud<\/a> both withdrew with injuries on the opening day.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Open is in the process of getting a new look<\/p>\n

Though the main draws didn’t begin until Sunday, action at the U.S. Open has already been going on for nearly a week. The mixed doubles tournament, an exhibition headlined by Roger Federer’s return to Flushing Meadows and the singles qualifying tournaments drew large crowds, with admission to the grounds free.<\/p>\n

Fans who came for the first time Sunday may have noticed a tournament in transition. The U.S. Open is in the second year of a three-year renovation project of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main venue at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The improvements in the $800 million project include the addition of some lower-level seating, upgrades and additions of entertainment areas and the construction of a player performance center. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlease pardon our appearance while we are reimagining spectacular,\u201d reads a sign above the entrance to Ashe.<\/p>\n

The project is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2027 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Third-ranked Jessica Pegula shook off nerves that contributed to a slow start against Elena-Gabriela…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[217,19696,21787,1218,11450,185,246,7493,18995,247,887,183,2904,1845,5130,270,1916,1915,747,282],"class_list":["post-60582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coco-gauff","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-atp-cincinnati-open-08-11-2026","tag-atp-us-open-08-18-2026","tag-barbora-krejcikova","tag-camila-osorio","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-elena-gabriela-ruse","tag-event_recap","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-kamilla-rakhimova","tag-leylah-fernandez","tag-linda-noskova","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-sloane-stephens","tag-sofia-kenin","tag-venus-williams","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}