Jessica Pegula has admitted that watching Jannik Sinner lose to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open final made her feel better.
Sinner was two sets up and had three championship points against the Spaniard before losing in an epic final set-decider in Paris.
Pegula suffered a shock defeat at Roland Garros in early JuneGETTY Sinner could barely believe he lost after spurning three championship points to AlcarazAFPIt was a crushing defeat for the Italian who was competing in his first Grand Slam since the end of his three-month doping ban.
Before the defeat in the showpiece, Sinner hadn’t dropped a set as he cruised through the tournament on clay.
But those missed championship points proved to be crucial.
And after Pegula crashed out to Lois Boisson in the round of 16, she has admitted that seeing Sinner’s defeat gave her some perspective.
The American, who is the heiress to billions of dollars, arrives in London as one of the favourites to win Wimbledon.
And ahead of the tournament starting, she spoke about Sinner and Alcaraz’s sensational Roland Garros clash.
She said: “I was at home and I didn’t really turn it on until somewhere in between the five-and-a-half-hours.
“I turned it on and obviously I thought Jannik was gonna win, and then it just flipped.
“It was crazy. I can’t believe that Carlos was able to save match points and come back.
“I think I was thinking, like, I was pretty upset after my loss to Boisson, like, just tough match, wanted to make another quarter-final and all that.
AFPSinner missed out on the chance to win his first French Open[/caption]“And then to see him lose like that, just that was clearly a million times worse and it honestly made me feel a little bit better.
“I was like, it’s all about perspective right there because watching that happen, you obviously felt for him a lot, and then on the flip side seeing Carlos being able to deal with all of that and come out and win and you’re thinking to yourself that tennis is really hard.
“So it actually kind of motivated me a little bit more that my loss wasn’t so bad.”
The defeats for Sinner and Pegula at the French Open were equally crushing for both.
Boisson was ranked at 361 in the world when she faced Pegula.
The American claimed the first set 6-3 before the Frenchwoman stormed back with the backing of a passionate home crowd to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-4 to dump Pegula out.
Sinner and Alcaraz produced one of the best finals in living memoryGettyMeanwhile, Sinner suffered his first defeat in a Grand Slam final having won the Australian Open twice and the US Open on one occasion.
But they’ll both be back at Wimbledon and will be looking to avenge those defeats.
However, Pegula is aware grass is tough to play on.
She remarked: “It’s a tricky surface, and honestly, I feel like it’s, not lucky, but it’s kind of like there’s a lot of weird points and weird momentum swings.
“If someone is serving really, really well, sometimes there’s not much you can do. Sometimes it’s one let cord over the net, you get the break and the person wins the match.
“The men have three out of five [sets], so maybe you don’t see that because there’s a wider span of someone having to play really well to beat a top player, but for the women it’s only two out of three.”
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