Tennis-Pegula romps to easy first-round win over Krueger

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 2, 2024 Jessica Pegula of the U.S. in action during her first round match against Ashlyn Krueger of the U.S. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

By Christian Radnedge

LONDON (Reuters) -Fifth seed Jessica Pegula made light work of fellow American Ashlyn Krueger 6-2 6-0 in the Wimbledon first round under gloomy skies on Tuesday.

Pegula, a quarter-finalist last year at the All England Club, broke in the opening game of the match before racing into a 4-0 lead in 10 minutes.

The 20-year-old Krueger did get on the scoreboard, using her six feet, one inch frame to great effect in her powerful serves. However, Pegula never looked seriously troubled against her 75th ranked opponent and sealed the first set with an ace.

The youngster was broken again in quick succession in the second set, and racked up 29 unforced errors in the match. Pegula, 30, ended Krueger's first appearance in the main draw at Wimbledon with an ace to complete a 49-minute win.

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 2, 2024 Jessica Pegula of the U.S. in action during her first round match against Ashlyn Krueger of the U.S. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

"I know Ashlyn pretty well and I know she has a very big game and I know she can kind of just start hitting whenever so my goal was to get the biggest lead possible so if that started to happen I had something to fall back on," Pegula said on court.

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 2, 2024 Ashlyn Krueger of the U.S. in action during her first round match against Jessica Pegula of the U.S. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

The 30-year-old won her first title on grass at last month's Berlin Open and performed well in Eastbourne to raise the prospect of going beyond the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam for the first time.

"It's taught me to, getting that bit of confidence on grass and winning a title on grass, maybe to be a bit more patient, not get so frustrated with some of the weird bounces that can happen," she added.

"So I think it helped a lot and I'm trying to use that confidence as much as I can coming into this week."

(Reporting by Christian Radnedge,Editing by Ed Osmond)