Jessica Pegula has played more tennis than almost anyone else on tour this season. Heading into the Asian swing, she sits at 50 match wins for the year, the most of any player on the WTA Tour, and 63 total matches played, one shy of Alex Eala’s tour-leading 64. Finally, after a demanding nine months of tennis and a taxing US Open, she has decided to withdraw from the next event. 

The American has withdrawn from next week’s Singapore Tennis Open, where she was set to headline the draw as top seed. She broke the news herself on Instagram, making clear the decision was not one she wanted to make. 

“I’m really disappointed to have to withdraw from Singapore,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “After a long and physically demanding few weeks at the US Open, I’m just not quite ready to get back on court and compete at the level I expect from myself. I was really looking forward to playing in Singapore and hope I can come back in the future.”

Her US Open run ended in the semifinals for the third straight year, falling to two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 6-2, a result that once again left her a step short of finally breaking through against the Belarusian at the one major where she has come closest to a title, having reached the final back in 2024.

Pegula’s withdrawal is a setback for the tournament as well, as they had upgraded to a 500-level event this season and the world No. 3 was the top seed at the tournament. She was drawn alongside players like Mirra Andreeva, Amanda Anisimova, Diana Shnaider, and Alex Eala. It would have been Pegula’s first appearance at the Singapore Open, but with her absence, the 2026 French Open champion, Andreeva, is the new top seed. 

However, her Asian swing is not completely off track because of skipping Singapore. Pegula can head straight into the back-to-back WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan, both of which count as key lead-up tournaments to the WTA Finals in November, this year being staged at Indian Wells for the first time.

A tight race for the WTA Finals and the year-end No.1 ranking

The larger prize is at stake in the quest for the season finale. Jessica Pegula is standing at the third position in the WTA final race with 5,825 points. Mathematically, she has yet to clinch her spot, but looking at her current position, it is quite secure. 

Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina are so far the only two players to qualify for the eight-player field, and Rybakina has the clear lead after winning the US Open title run, with Sabalenka trailing by about 1000 points. Meanwhile, Pegula is in a close race with Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva, who are breathing down her neck in the standings. That’s even true for the world rankings as well. 

Pegula is ranked third in the world, and Gauff is just 21 points behind. A strong week in either Beijing or Wuhan could flip their positions, and Pegula even has a chance to overtake Sabalenka, who she trails by 600 points. Skipping Singapore means Pegula walks away from earning points before this showdown, but it also gives her more time to arrive in China in a relatively fresh state, rather than overloading her body at the tail end of the season. 

Pegula had a shot at the No.1 ranking at the US Open if Rybakina had fallen before the semifinals, and she would have won the title. During the press conferences at the US Open, when asked about targeting the No.1 ranking, the 32-year-old American had agreed that it was her childhood dream to achieve that. She will continue chasing her dream after taking the Singapore Open week off and begin her Asian swing at the China Open.