Cocciaretto stuns Pegula in just 58 minutes in Wimbledon opener
WIMBLEDON -- Twelve months ago, Elisabetta Cocciaretto’s strong grass-court form came to a halt when a bout of pneumonia forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon.
The Italian made up for that in the first round on Tuesday by delivering the biggest upset of the 2025 tournament so far, ousting No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in just 58 minutes. The result was the quickest defeat of a Top 5 seed at a major since Jule Niemeier's 58-minute 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Anett Kontaveit in the second round of Wimbledon 2022.
Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draw
The result is Cocciaretto's second career Top 10 victory -- both of which have come in the first round of a major, following her defeat of Petra Kvitova at that stage of Roland Garros 2023. The 24-year-old is a two-time grass-court semifinalist, having made the last four at Birmingham 2024 and again in 's-Hertogenbosch three weeks ago.
Pegula also came into the tournament in form. Last week in Bad Homburg, she picked up her second grass-court title. But Cocciaretto took the ball relentlessly early to redirect all of the American's pace, tallying 17 winners to Pegula's five. She also served flawlessly, conceding just eight points in total behind her delivery and did not face a break point during the match -- while capturing Pegula's serve three times.
Cocciaretto advanced to the third round of Wimbledon for the second time. She avenged her 6-4, 6-0 loss to Pegula at the same stage in 2023. Pegula fell in the first round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Roland Garros 2020, where she lost her opener to Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-1.
"I was so pumped to play Wimbledon this year," Cocciaretto said in her on-court interview. "I couldn't wait until the match started, I was practicing so hard."
The reason she was extra-pumped? Not just her love of Wimbledon or affinity for grass, but in order to banish the memories of 2024. This time last year, she was ranked No. 43 but is now down at No. 116 -- a slide that started when what she thought was a mild illness turned out to be much more serious.
"I was playing Birmingham," she said. "The day of quarterfinals, when I won against [Diana] Shnaider, I was really sick in the night, like sweating a lot and feeling really bad. I had a lot of fever."
Cocciaretto wasn't about to let a semifinal opportunity pass her by, though -- and how bad could it be, she thought? Even after she had to retire mid-match against Yulia Putintseva, she still thought she could continue her strong play in Bad Homburg the following week.
"I was supposed to play against [Maria] Sakkari first round," Cocciaretto said. "I withdraw because I couldn't walk. I couldn't wake up from the bed. I stayed five or six days with 39, 40 degrees of fever. I took antibiotics and everything. But the thing is that I was sleeping, like, 15 hours a day.
"I had mycoplasma virus pneumoniae. I went to the hospital, and I was sick until the Olympic Games."
Cocciaretto considers grass her favorite surface -- which is why she was so devastated in 2024, and so keen to make up for it this year. That wasn't always the case: as a child, she initially played like a typical clay-courter.
"My game was completely different," she said. "I stayed away from the court, running a lot. Then with Fausto [Scolari], my coach, he changed me completely. I stay really near the court. I go really aggressive. I think I adapt really well. I think I'm pretty good working around the court. Like, for me it's comfortable. I don't know why, because I really played maybe four or five tournaments in my life on grass."
Without an abundance of grass courts, the Italian tennis federation built what Cocciaretto calls "a garden with tennis court lines" for their juniors to train on ahead of the grass swing. This confirmed the newly aggressive Cocciaretto's affinity for the surface.
"From there, I said to Fausto, 'I want to play in the future Wimbledon, because I think I can play really well,'" she said. "I said to myself, 'I can.' So always when I step on grass courts, I'm really happy just to play there."
Cocciaretto's brilliance was acknowledged by the opposition. Pegula's coach congratulated her afterward, and the US Open finalist was quick to praise her to reporters.
"She played absolutely incredible tennis," Pegula said. "Do I think I played the best match ever? No, but I definitely don't think I was playing bad. It wasn't like I was playing that bad. She just was hitting her shots and going for it, serving big, serving high percentage, going big second serves, redirecting the ball.
"I do feel like she played kind of insane. Hats off to her. Kudos to her for playing at a high level that I couldn't match it today."
Cocciaretto will bid to return to the third round against Katie Volynets, who defeated another of this year's grass-court champions, Queen's winner Tatjana Maria, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Maria served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. Following Wang Xinyu's 7-5, 6-3 upset of No. 15 seed Karolina Muchova, a brand-new Wimbledon quarterfinalist is now guaranteed from this section of the draw.
Four out of this year's six grass-court titlists have now lost in the first round of Wimbledon -- Eastbourne winner Maya Joint fell 6-3, 6-2 to No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova. The two remaining are Berlin champion Marketa Vondrousova (who defeated Nottingham winner McCartney Kessler on Monday) and 's-Hertogenbosch champion Elise Mertens.
