Jessica Pegula is being backed to win her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon this year.
Pegula reached the final of the Berlin Open earlier this month, having beaten Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys to do so.
This was a good sign for the American coming into Wimbledon, before Pegula won her first round match against Darja Vidmanova 7-5, 6-3.
Pegula lost in the first round of Wimbledon last year, but former top 10 player Andrea Petkovic is backing her to go all the way in 2026.
Andrea Petkovic predicts Jessica Pegula to win Wimbledon
When making their predictions for Wimbledon this year on The Big T Podcast, former ATP player Prakash Amritraj and Petkovic both had Pegula as their champion before her first round match.
“I’m going to go with a first time winner, I’m going to go with Jess Pegula,” said Amritraj. “I like her section, I think she’s going to find a little bit of magic.
“I did really like what I saw this grass court season and I think something that’s going to help her if she continues doing what she’s doing, she’s had a couple of semi-deep runs at Wimbledon, if she can keep that serving up, that is going to help her tremendously. So let’s go with Jpegs to get it done.”
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Petkovic followed by agreeing with Amritraj, before praising Pegula for her scheduling coming into Wimbledon this year.
“I agree Prakash, I also have Jpeg,” said Petkovic. “The reason I have her is because I really love her scheduling this year.
“She won in Bad Homburg last year and then lost in the first round to Cocciaretto and I spoke to her team a little bit and Mark, not our Mark, not Mark Knowles.
“Mark Merklein told me that she really thought that transition from German grass to the beginning Wimbledon grass that is very plush and plays quite slow in the beginning really did her in, paired with an incredible performance by Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
“So she very consciously chose to play in Berlin and not go defend her title, which is a difficult decision to make as a player. You want to go back to the places you feel comfortable in and she very intentionally chose not to go back to a place where she knows she feels comfortable at, where she knows she can win and play well, to do well at Wimbledon.”
Andrea Petkovic explains why she thinks Jannik Sinner will win Wimbledon
Petkovic also made her prediction for the men’s singles tournament, as she backed Jannik Sinner to defend his title, but this time beating Ben Shelton in the final.
Sinner lost in the second round of Roland Garros last month, but Petkovic explained why she thinks the world number one will be able to bounce back.
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“I think Jannik Sinner has shown us in the past, in his very young past, he’s not been a part of this tour for a very long time, but he has shown us that every time he gets a little bit of backlash and a little bit of critique and he feels like people are doubting him, that’s when he makes the next leap,” said Petkovic.
“Just remember how people were already saying he’s in a crisis at the Australian Open and then losing to [Jakub] Mensik in Doha, and what did he do afterwards? He won like 70,000 Masters tournaments in a row before he ran out of gas. So I think that he thrives on a little bit of challenge.”
Sinner will be hoping to join an exclusive group of just nine men who have defended the Wimbledon singles title in the Open Era this year.