Jessica Pegula Withdraws from WTA 500 Singapore Open

Jessica Pegula has withdrawn from the WTA 500 Singapore Open, pulling out of the event scheduled to start on September 21 and raising fresh questions about her physical condition at the tail end of a demanding season.

The decision lands just days after a strangely subdued US Open semifinal showing against Aryna Sabalenka, a match that left many observers wondering if something was off long before the announcement came. Pegula, usually sharp off both wings and relentless from the baseline, looked uncharacteristically flat in New York. The intensity that has carried her into the game’s elite never really surfaced.

Sabalenka’s level and power undoubtedly played their part, but the American’s body language told its own story. The legs didn’t drive through the court in the same way. The reactions were a half-beat slower. For a player renowned for her consistency and resilience, it stood out.

Mystery bandages only deepened the intrigue.

Across her run at Flushing Meadows, Pegula stepped on court with various parts of her body taped or bandaged. In the quarterfinals, a bandage appeared on her shin. By the semifinal, another sat high on her upper leg near the quadriceps. No explanation followed, no official injury detail emerged, yet the visuals lingered. They might be routine precautionary measures in a brutal calendar, or they might be connected to this latest withdrawal. For now, that link remains unconfirmed.

What is clear: the world No. 3 is managing something, and she has chosen not to push through Singapore.

The timing matters in a bigger race.

The top eight singles players will gather for the WTA Finals in Indian Wells starting November 8, and Pegula’s season has put her in a commanding position. Sitting at No. 3 in the rankings, she holds a strong hand in the Finals chase, with enough points banked to give her a margin of safety as the tour barrels through its final stretch.

Coco Gauff, ranked fourth, joins her as the only other American woman currently inside the projected WTA Finals field. Amanda Anisimova, at No. 11, waits just outside the cut line, needing a late surge to crash the season-ending show.

Two months of tennis still lie between now and Indian Wells. That window can transform a race, reshape a season, and, for Pegula, decide how fresh she feels when the sport’s elite gather for one last showdown.

For now, Singapore will go on without her. The real question is whether this step back is the pause that secures her place at the year-end climax in full health—or the first sign of a battle that might define the close of her season.