Jessica Pegula is one of the most dependable grass players in the women’s game, a two-time title winner on the surface whose flat, early hitting travels well. She finished the 2026 season 5th in the GTC Grass Rankings with a GTC Grass Rating of 119, the same position she started in.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 119, 5th in the women’s rankings (5th before the season)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 78, Arsenal 78, Wimbledon 68, Nerve 66
- Nationality: United States
- Best Wimbledon result: Quarter-final (2023, 2026)
- Grass titles: Berlin 2024, Bad Homburg 2025
- Plays: Right-handed, two-handed backhand
How Jessica plays on grass
Pegula takes the ball earlier than almost anyone on the tour, standing on the baseline and redirecting pace with short, flat swings. On grass that gives opponents very little time, and it makes her return one of the most effective on the surface: she blocks and drives serves back low and deep and starts most rallies on level terms. Her backhand, particularly down the line, is the shot she trusts most when she needs to change direction.
Her Arsenal score of 78 rewards that fit. The serve is accurate rather than overpowering, so she relies on placement and the first ball after it, and she does not use the net or the slice as often as a classic grass player. Nerve, at 66, is solid. She has won two grass finals, but her Wimbledon defeats have tended to come from winning positions in deciding sets against players with more raw power.
Grass record
Pegula’s Wimbledon record before 2026 was uneven. She reached the third round in 2022 and the quarter-finals in 2023, where she led in the third set against Markéta Vondroušová before losing to the eventual champion. Early exits followed, to Wang Xinyu in the second round in 2024 and to Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the first round in 2025.
The warm-up events tell a stronger story. She won Berlin in 2024, beating Anna Kalinskaya in a final with two tie-breaks, and Bad Homburg in 2025, where she beat Iga Świątek in straight sets in the final. Those titles underpin her high Lawn Form score.
The 2026 grass season
Pegula withdrew from Queen’s and opened her grass season in Berlin as the 3rd seed. She beat Kateřina Siniaková, Madison Keys and Aryna Sabalenka to reach the final, then lost to Linda Nosková 4-6, 6-4, 3-6. Nosková went on to win Wimbledon, which makes that result look better still. The run lifted the rating from 118 to 122, and it was unchanged through the Bad Homburg week.
At Wimbledon, seeded 4th, she came from a set down to beat 16th seed Iva Jovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the fourth round and reach the quarter-finals for the second time. There she won the first set against Coco Gauff but lost 6-4, 3-6, 3-6. The rating eased from 122 to 119, still a small gain on the season.
Looking ahead to 2027
Pegula’s 2027 grass schedule is likely to centre again on Berlin and Bad Homburg, where she has a title and a final in the last two years, before Wimbledon. Her Lawn Form and Arsenal scores are already among the best in the women’s list; the gap to the players above her is at Wimbledon itself. The realistic target is a first semi-final, and the area to improve is converting winning positions in deciding sets against heavier hitters, as she could not against Gauff and Vondroušová.
