Cocciaretto beats Pegula as the upset bug hits Wimbledon

bombay: Elisabetta Cocciaretto was jestingly excusatory nearly existence too philosophical in her post-match speech. Why wouldn’t she be?

Last year around this time, the Italian with a penchant for grass was hoping for a Wimbledon to savour as a top-50 player having made her deepest entry in a Slam at the French Open (fourth round). She instead lay in a hospital with a long-standing bout of pneumonia.

This year, she did make it to Wimbledon after all, but as a player who had fallen out of the top 100 after kicking off 2024 with three consecutive first-round exits. In her opening act at the All England Club, though, she knocked out third seed Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in 58 minutes.

“You have to accept what life gives you,” she said, before the apology followed.

Exactly a year after her most agonising FOMO moment, life would give the 24-year-old the biggest win yet of her career. In the very same tournament.

On the same No.2 Court of Wimbledon where she packed off the world No.3 in a jiffy, men’s world No.7 Lorenzo Musetti also went crashing out to Nikoloz Basilashvili 2-6, 6-4, 5-7, 1-6. The upset bug quickly spread from the first day to the second and into other courts. On Centre Court, men’s third seed Alexander Zverev lost to unseeded Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 6-7(3), 7-6(8), 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-6 in a match that continued from Monday. Women’s fifth seed and Olympic gold medallist Qinwen Zheng too went down in three sets to Katerina Siniakova.

The standout among them was Pegula, given the reigning US Open finalist was coming into Wimbledon having won a grasscourt title in Bad Homburg on Saturday. Little wonder the Italian that handed the American her earliest defeat at a major since 2020 couldn’t stop beaming.

During last year’s Wimbledon, she couldn’t stop feeling helpless.

Cocciaretto, part of Italy’s Billie Jean King Cup winning team of last year, began the 2024 season capturing her third WTA 125 title in Charleston. At the French Open she swept past two seeded opponents to make the fourth round before running into Coco Gauff. Moving to grass, a surface she loves, Cocciaretto won her quarter-final in Birmingham. That night, she began sweating profusely with high fever.

She still turned up for the semi-final and lost in straight sets. She still had hopes turning up for her next tournament in Bad Homburg, the final warm-up event leading into Wimbledon. Wasn’t to be.

“I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t wake up from the bed,” she said.

As Wimbledon drew closer, Cocciaretto checked into the hospital diagnosed with mycoplasma virus pneumoniae. She was sick for more than a month, before finally gaining the strength to turn up for the Paris Olympics, only to lose in the first round.

A year later, moving from clay to grass, her success rate was similar – she entered the semi-final in s-Hertogenbosch three weeks ago. Having missed the bus last year, the Italian was even more upbeat about getting on it this time.

“I had a lot of stops last year,” she said. “And that’s why I was so pumped.”

And so good. Cocciaretto dropped just eight points on her serve throughout the match, breaking Pegula’s serve thrice. She notched up 17 winners to Pegula’s five.

It’s an unusually low winner count for a top-five player, especially one who had just captured a title on the same surface three days ago. Going deep in the warm-up events to Wimbledon, however, has not necessarily translated to a deep run at the Big W in the recent past. Pegula, who had her left knee taped, is the latest and most prominent example of that trend, after the ouster of Daniil Medvedev, the Halle finalist.

Four out of this year’s six grass-court tune-up event winners in women’s singles have exited in the first round of Wimbledon. Other champions in that list: Tatjana Maria (Queen’s), Maya Joint (Eastbourne) and McCartney Kessler (Nottingham).

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