Pegula casts doubts on marathon WTA scheduling

Two-time titlewinner in Canada Jessica Pegula on Sunday threw shade on the extension of the summer hardcourt swing into a pair of masters events lasting for three weeks in total

The American who won Canadian trophies in 2024 and last summer, is withholding judgement on the WTA move to stretch the formerly one-week Masters events to roughly 11 days each for this event and the last major before the US Open, Cincinnati.

“It can seem really long, especially leading up to a slam, but I’m interested,” the American said.

“It’s not quite two weeks for each tournament, right? It’s 21 days. I think it’s a little bit of a hybrid between what we’ve seen with, like, Madrid and Rome or Indian Wells/Miami.”

She called the challenge “obviously longer than just having one week to finish everything.”

Pegula said she is reserving judgement of the controversial move which has riled some major players.

“I’m, honestly, interested to see how it turns out and how it feels for the players and for the fans; it’s kind of like meeting in the middle a little bit.”

But doubts remain for last autumn’s US Open runner-up.

“I’m not a fan of when they’re two weeks long. It can get really tough. I feel like Slams are two weeks, and so now turning everything almost into a Slam is really mentally draining. 

“I’m hoping that these two events feel like a good kind of middle ground, I guess I could say. It’s the first time we’ve done it, and I think we’re all going to have to get used to it, but I guess we’ll see how it goes.”