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Pat Hickey, Special to Postmedia
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Jessica Pegula said she was surprised when she saw a headline heralding the end of her doubles partnership with Coco Gauff.
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“Someone sent me that headline, and I was like: ‘That’s weird,” said Pegula who is playing with Gauff at this week’s National Bank Open women’s tennis championships. “I don’t know where on earth that came from.”
It came from a reporter jumping to a conclusion after the pair decided to take a break from doubles last week in Washington as they looked ahead to a busy schedule with Montreal, Cincinnati and the U.S. Open.
“Everyone gives us crap for playing too much, and then we didn’t play D.C., and we were getting so many questions,” said Pegula.
They do play a lot of tennis because they are ranked in the top 10 in singles and doubles.
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Pegula, who is No. 3 in singles, marched into the round of 16 Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over lucky loser Yulia Putinseva of
Kazakhstan while Gauff, who is No. 7, kept pace with a routine 6-2, 6-2 win over British qualifier Katie Boulter.
They are the No. 1 team in the season-long Race to the WTA Finals and won their opening doubles match here on Tuesday,
The 29-year-old Pegula said the heavy workload is made easier because Gauff is 19.
“She’s like an Energizer Bunny,” said Pegula. “She’s like: ‘Yeah, I’ll play whenever, every day. It doesn’t matter. Three times a day, I don’t care.’ You don’t usually see a lot of players playing both singles and doubles but for us I think we enjoy it, and we use it as a chance to get better in singles as well.”
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There’s another reason why Pegula and Gauff are sticking together. They are hoping to represent the United States next summer at the Paris Olympics.
“One of my biggest dreams is to win a gold medal, and, frankly, I think it’s one of the things that it doesn’t matter what event it’s in,” said Gauff. “A gold medal is a gold medal, where I feel like the Grand Slams is definitely way cooler to win a singles one than a doubles one.”
Gauff, who has added Brad Gilbert to her coaching team, won her first WTA 500 singles title last week in Washington
Gilbert, a former top-10 player who coached Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray in the past, has moved Gauff back on her service return. And he has urged the youngster to be more aggressive in her service games. At some point you can. expect him to address her forehand which is her perceived weakness.
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She didn’t appear to have weakness against Boulter as she ran up a 4-0 lead in the opening set and coasted to victory.
Belinda Bencic, the 12th seed from Switzerlnd was pushed to the limit before beating American qualifier Alycia Parks 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 while 15th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia breezed past Qinwen Zhang of China 6-3, 6-2.
Two seeded players withdrew from the tournament late Tuesday night.
American Sloane Stephens received a pass into the round of 16 when 16th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus withdrew with an abdominal Issue and Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced when 13th-seeded Madison Keys was sidelined by a gluteal strain which is literally a pain in the buttocks.
Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland survived a first-set challenge before beating former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova of Czechia 7-6 (6), 6-2.
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