"What else has she got to do?" - Rennae Stubbs on Jessica Pegula not winning WTA Most Improved Player of 2022 award
Jessica Pegula deserved to win the WTA award for the 'most improved player' of the 2022 season as opposed to Beatriz Haddad Maia, believes Rennae Stubbs. Haddad Maia, who made her top-15 rankings debut in singles and doubles and also won four titles this past season, showed a lot of improvement, but Pegula's season was more deserving of the honor, Stubbs opined.
Pegula is currently the top-ranked American player in the WTA rankings and the World No. 3. She undoubtedly had her career-best season on tour, also qualifying for the WTA Finals in singles as well as doubles, where she is ranked No. 6 in the world.
Stubbs feels Pegula was hard done by not getting the WTA Most Improved Player of the Year award as she could not have done better this season.
"What about Jessica Pegula? Beatriz Haddad Maia had an incredible year but...(Pegula is) three in the world," Stubbs said on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
"She won a WTA 1000 event leading into the championships. Not only did she make the singles but also the doubles. I mean, come on, number three in the world. What else has she got to do?" the Australian added.
Haddad Maia started the 2022 season outside the top 80 in the WTA rankings but rose to No. 15 at the end of the season, highlighted by two WTA 250 titles in Nottingham and Birmingham. She also reached the Canadian Open final - her maiden WTA 1000 singles final. The Brazilian also won two doubles titles in 2022 and finished at No. 13 in the rankings.
Meanwhile, Pegula won five doubles titles and the solitary singles title in 2022, but the singles title held great significance as it came in the form of her maiden WTA 1000 title at the Guadalajara Open. She also jumped from No. 50 at the start of 2022 to No. 6 at the end of the season in the doubles rankings and from No. 18 to No. 3 in the singles rankings.
Pegula was nominated for the WTA Player of the Year award but not for the Most Improved Player award, much to Stubbs' confusion. She also highlighted that Iga Swiatek was quite comfortably the best player of the year.
"She (Jessica Pegula) was nominated for player of the year but didn't get that. She was much-improved player, not the best player. The best player was Iga Swiatek," Stubbs expressed.
Rennae Stubbs agrees with Jessica Pegula's coach winning Coach of the Year award
While Jessica Pegula missed out on an award, her coach David Witt won the Coach of the Year award for overseeing the American star's incredible rise in 2022. Rennae Stubbs was in full agreement with Witt being awarded the honor, despite the views of many who suggested Iga Swiatek's coach Tomasz Wiktorowski deserved to win the award.
Stubbs admitted that Wiktorowski "did an amazing job" and would have been a deserving winner but stressed that Witt's work in helping Pegula rise to the world No. 3 spot should be applauded.
“I don't have a problem with that one, I mean Thomas won it the year before and he obviously could have received it again this year but Dave has done an amazing job with helping Jess getting to #3 in the world. But obviously Thomas did an amazing job," Rennae Stubbs wrote on Twitter.
* Wiktorowski did not win the Coach of the Year award in 2021.