Jessica Pegula said she would have a hard time imagining herself attempting the kind of comeback Carlos Alcaraz is set to make Monday at the U.S. Open, where he is returning to high-stakes competition after more than four months without an official match.
Alcaraz is scheduled to meet Russia’s Roman Safiullin in the first round, his first major competitive test since a wrist injury forced him out of action in mid-April. The Spanish star also chose not to play the Cincinnati Open earlier this month, a decision that caught Pegula’s attention.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a tough thing to do,’ but I think he’s kind of a special player, obviously,” Pegula said Sunday after advancing through her own U.S. Open first-round match.
Pegula, who opened her tournament with a straight-sets victory over Elena-Gabriela Ruse, pointed out that the men’s best-of-five format may give Alcaraz a bit more room to settle in and play his way back into rhythm.
“I do think it gives a little more leeway for him to work his way into matches, where if it’s two out of three, like for the women, that to me is a little bit tougher,” she said. “Because you lose the first set and you come out a little rusty, you’re, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, if I don’t win the second set, then I’m out.’”
Alcaraz has missed out on more than half of the major tournaments this season and several ATP events as well, but Pegula had no doubt that he can rise to the occasion in Queens. “I think if he can win his first couple of rounds, he’s gonna find his form very, very fast,” she said.
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Tommy Paul is confident that an American man could win the U.S. Open this year.
No American man has won a Grand Slam title in Flushing Meadows since 2003, but Paul said that “the Americans have been playing great tennis leading into the U.S. Open.”
“This is always where we want to play well. This is always where we have, I guess, the most energy going into matches,” he said. “To get across the line, I’m not sure. Obviously we’re going to have to play really, really good tennis and really clutch tennis.”
Rick Pitino was back in Queens, just a few miles away from St. John’s campus. The Red Storm head coach returned to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to take in the night session of Day 1 of the tournament.
Pitino had attended a night session at last year’s U.S. Open as well.