Jessica Pegula celebrates Olympic Village 'roomie' Lily Zhang's 3R win at Paris 2024, where basketball star Anthony Edwards was also in attendance
Jessica Pegula lauded Lily Zhang after the latter's epic third-round win in the 2024 Paris Olympics table tennis competition on Tuesday. She also mentioned that Zhang was her Olympic Village roommate.
Pegula kicked off her Olympics campaign in style with a dominant 6-3, 6-4 win over Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic in the opening round. She was, however, halted in her tracks by a spirited Elina Svitolina. The Ukrainian fought back from a set down to seal a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win, sending the World No. 6 out.
The American who didn't have a match scheduled for Tuesday, July 30, took to her social media to celebrate table tennis star Zhang's win. She shared that Zhang was one of her 'roomies' in the Olympic Village, while also saying that different racquet sports athletes should support one another.
"This is our roomie in the village. Racquet sports gotta stick together. Go Lily!" Pegula wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
NBA star and fellow USA athlete Anthony Edwards was spotted in the crowd enjoying the table tennis action while passionately cheering on Zhang and the USA table tennis team. He cheered Zhang on as she defeated Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi, standing up and applauding her at various intervals in the match.
Edwards earlier jokingly challenged the American table tennis team to a friendly at the opening ceremony after teammate Stephen Curry suggested that he'd lose to them 21-0.
Jessica Pegula and Coco Guaff suffer shock exit in doubles at Paris Olympics 2024
Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff suffered a shock exit at the hands of Czech Republic's Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova in the second round of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday, July 31.
The American duo started strong taking the first set easily, but a terrific fightback from the Czech duo in the second set saw them head into a deciding match tie-breaker. Noskova and Muchova served much better and held their nerves in the decisive moments to ultimately seal a 2-6, 6-4, 10-5 win. They will play Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Chia Yi Tsao next after they receive a walkover into the last eight from the Ukrainian duo of Marta Kostyuk/ Dayana Yastremska.
The loss brought an end to Pegula's 2024 Olympic campaign. Gauff, on the contrary, will continue her quest for a medal in the mixed doubles alongside partner Taylor Fritz.