{"id":14842,"date":"2023-12-31T21:10:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T02:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/jessica-pegula-rallies-for-u-s-djokovic-wins-last-match-of-23\/31\/12\/2023\/"},"modified":"2023-12-31T21:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T02:10:52","slug":"jessica-pegula-rallies-for-u-s-djokovic-wins-last-match-of-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/jessica-pegula-rallies-for-u-s-djokovic-wins-last-match-of-23\/31\/12\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula rallies for U.S.; Djokovic wins last match of &#8217;23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jessica Pegula<\/a> had to regroup after being upset in her singles match to help the United States defeat Great Britain in their United Cup tie Sunday in Sydney.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2054\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Katie Boulter<\/a> stunned the fifth-ranked Pegula by rallying from a set down to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in nearly three hours.<\/p>\n<p>The Americans drew level when 10th-ranked <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2946\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Taylor Fritz<\/a> defeated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2366\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Cameron Norrie<\/a> 7-6 (5), 6-4 to force a deciding mixed doubles match. Pegula and Fritz then combined for victory over Boulter and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2699\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Neal Skupski<\/a> 1-6, 7-6 (4), 10-7 that sealed the tie for the defending champions.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The Americans will qualify for the quarterfinals if they win their final match against Australia. All three teams still have a chance to qualify if Australia beats the U.S. in the final group match.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Novak Djokovic<\/a> started his United Cup debut on a winning note as the world No. 1 eased past China&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Zhang Zhizhen<\/a> 6-3 6-2 before doubling up to secure a 2-1 victory for Serbia in the mixed team tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic wasted little time in priming himself for a run at a record-extending 11th Australian Open title as he dismantled world No. 58 Zhang in 72 minutes at a packed RAC Arena.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s great to be back in Perth,&#8221; Djokovic said. &#8220;New Year&#8217;s in a few hours, so I really appreciate you coming to hopefully celebrate New Year&#8217;s Eve with us here on the court. It&#8217;s been 10 years since I&#8217;ve been in Perth, and this arena is definitely one of the nicest, from inside and outside, that I&#8217;ve played in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic said he felt a bit rusty early against Zhang and a &#8220;little bit out of rhythm&#8221; because of not playing a match for over a month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It obviously takes a little bit of time to get the engines going, and he was serving well,&#8221; Djokovic said. &#8220;I think the serve was great on my part. Whenever I needed to get myself out of trouble, at 15-15 or 30-30 in my service games, I found a good serve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=6048\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Zheng Qinwen<\/a> rolled over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3148\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Olga Danilovic<\/a> 6-4, 6-2 to make it 1-1, but Djokovic returned to play with Danilovic in the mixed doubles and seal a 6-4, 1-6, 10-6 victory against Zheng and Zhang.<\/p>\n<p>In other results, 2021 US Open finalist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3641\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Leylah Fernandez<\/a> led Canada to a 2-1 victory over Chile in its opening United Cup match.<\/p>\n<p>Fernandez defeated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2702\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Daniela Seguel<\/a> 6-3, 6-2 before <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nicolas Jarry<\/a> leveled the Group B tie for Chile by beating <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=2531\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Steven Diez<\/a> in straight sets. Diez had replaced <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/sports\/tennis\/players\/profile?playerId=3209\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a>, who was rested with a minor knee issue.<\/p>\n<p>Fernandez and Diez then won the deciding mixed doubles against Seguel and Tom\u00e1s Barrios Vera 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 to seal the tie for the Canadians.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m extremely happy with the way I played,&#8221; world No. 35 Fernandez said after her 73-minute win over Seguel. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t the greatest match because it is my first match of the season, the nerves, but I&#8217;m extremely happy with the way that I was able to manage it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mixed teams from 18 countries are playing in Perth and Sydney in what doubles as a warmup for the Australian Open.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/tennis\/story\/_\/id\/39214956\/jessica-pegula-rallies-help-us-win-great-britain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jessica Pegula had to regroup after being upset in her singles match to help the United States defeat Great Britain in their<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/jessica-pegula-rallies-for-u-s-djokovic-wins-last-match-of-23\/31\/12\/2023\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[871,1763,12,1706,928,1965,508],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14844,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842\/revisions\/14844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}