Tennis News: Jessica Pegula's injury issue and Federico Coria's complaint

Jessica Pegula has had a weird year so far. She missed the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart because of a scheduling issue, she has battled through injuries and changed coaches, and even though she participated in last weekend's Billie Jean King Cup, she announced on Instagram that she will not be playing in the Madrid Masters that start later this week.

Pegula did not specify exactly what her injury is but said she was injured seemingly between the BJK Cup and the Madrid Masters. She apparently was not injured before the event in Stuttgart so this is something new. What makes that potentially worse is that there is no way of knowing how long the injury will linger.

The event most prominent on the WTA tour ahead of the French Open in late May is the Italian Open which begins May 6. Pegula probably would like to play at that tournament because it serves as a good warmup to Roland Garros. Unlike Pegula's doubles partner, Coco Gauff, the American has not done very well at the French Open overall. She reached the singles quarterfinals in 2022 but has not made it past the third round in any other year.

Jessica Pegula has a new injury and Federico Coria has a new complaint

Pegula will also be dropping some rankings points by not playing in Madrid. The WTA No. 5 will drop 215 points which could cause players such as Maria Sakkari, Marketa Vondrousova, and Qinwen Zheng to overtake her in May.

Another player who is not injured but has some complaints is Argentine Federico Coria. The 32 year old made his debut at the Tiriac Open in Bucharest last week, made the round of 16, but then lost to countryman Francisco Cerundolo. Coria's issue wasn't that he lost but with somethings the tournament could not control: The weather and daylight.

Maybe the organizers in Bucharest could have done a better job with scheduling, but unfortunately, scheduling has been an issue with tennis events for several years now. Jan-Lennard Struff, for instance, was forced to play two matches in one day at the BMW Open last week. That did not stop Struff from winning the tournament, however.

Coria posted his complaints on X/Twitter saying in part, "Imagine if the Bucharest tournament happened in South America, there is no light, it didn't rain yesterday and the day couldn't be finished...," while also adding "I can’t understand how Estoril can leave the calendar and this one stays."

Maybe therein lies his larger issue: What tournaments stay on the schedule and which ones are not. South American players have to travel to play Masters 1000 events and Grand Slams. South American tennis fans have proven they will support the sport and the sport needs to show them more love by adding a Masters 1000 in Argentina or Brazil. Coria did not necessarily say that, but based on his social media comments, he likely would agree with that.

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