Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto made a stunning return to the Wimbledon stage on Tuesday, ousting No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in just 58 minutes in the first round in London.
Cocciaretto had to sit out the major in 2024 due to illness. She has played well on the grass courts in the past year, reaching the semifinals last year at Birmingham and last month in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
“I was so pumped to play Wimbledon this year,” Cocciaretto said in her on-court interview. “I couldn’t wait until the match started, I was practicing so hard.”
Cocciaretto, 24, has won one title on the WTA Tour and has a 14-17 record and the No. 116 world ranking this season. By beating Pegula, she earned her second win over a Top 10 opponent, previously defeating Petra Kvitova at the French Open in 2023.
Pegula came into the match on a high note, having defeated Iga Swiatek of Poland last weekend to win the grass-court title in Bad Homburg. But Cocciaretto dictated the match and hit 17 winners compared to five for Pegula, who was broken on serve four times but scored only eight points on her opponent’s serve.
In the second round, Cocciaretto will face another American, Katie Volynets. She defeated Tatjana Maria of Germany 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Other winners in early action Tuesday were a trio of seeded players — No. 16 Daria Kasatkina of Australia, No. 18 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia and No. 23 Clara Tauson of Denmark. Also victorious were Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands, Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu and Veronika Erjavec of Slovenia, who defeated No. 26 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
