Jessica Pegula Withdraws from Singapore WTA 500 After Intense Hard-Court Season

Jessica Pegula’s blistering American summer has come at a price. The world No. 3 has withdrawn from next week’s WTA 500 event in Singapore, calling time on a stretch of tennis that pushed her to the edge both physically and mentally.

“After a long and physically demanding few weeks at the U.S. Open, I'm just not quite ready to get back on court and compete at the level I expect from myself,” Pegula wrote on social media this week, drawing a firm line under an exhausting run.

It’s hard to argue with the toll. Pegula has been everywhere and winning almost everything. She reached the finals in Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati, then powered into the U.S. Open semifinals for the second straight year. Across the American hard-court swing she went 15-4, piling up victories and minutes on court. Her 50 match wins this season lead the WTA Tour, a marker of both excellence and sheer workload.

That surge has lifted the 32-year-old American to No. 3 in the rankings, a career high and a statement of where she now sits in the women’s game: a week-in, week-out force who rarely takes a tournament off. This time, she had to.

Singapore, which begins on Monday, will feel her absence. Pegula was slated to arrive as the top seed and clear headliner of the 28-player field. With her withdrawal, the draw reshapes at the top: No. 5-ranked Mirra Andreeva steps into the role of top seed, a significant stage for one of the tour’s rising stars.

There is still quality in the field. Top 20 players Amanda Anisimova and Alexandra Eala add heft to the lineup and will sense opportunity in a week suddenly missing its highest-ranked name. The title, once expected to run through Pegula, now looks far more open.

For Pegula, the decision underlines a different kind of ambition. She has built her rise on consistency, but the calendar has teeth. With a long season still stretching ahead and her ranking at an all-time high, she has chosen to protect the level she has worked so hard to reach—by staying off court, for now.