World’s richest tennis star Jessica Peluga ‘too afraid to eat’ in Paris

Jun 02, 2023 at 1:01 PM
World’s richest tennis star Jessica Peluga ‘too afraid to eat’ in Paris

Jessica Pegula has admitted that she has been too scared to eat out in Paris throughout the after falling sick on her first night time within the metropolis final month. The 29-year-old, who is claimed to be the world’s richest tennis participant because the daughter of multi-billionaires Terry and Kim Pegula, is hoping to win her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this 12 months after breezing by way of the opening two rounds.

Pegula is presently ranked because the world’s third-best feminine singles participant and is extensively thought-about as one of many main contenders to say the honours on the French Open, though she has revealed that her marketing campaign received off to the worst attainable begin when she picked up a abdomen bug after consuming at a restaurant with associates upon her arrival in Paris.

“Coming into this week’s French Open, my preparations were completely thrown by getting food poisoning on my first night and first dinner in Paris,” wrote Pegula in her BBC Sport column.

“What horrendous luck. I have not gone out to a restaurant since as a result of I’ve been too afraid to eat there. I do not know precisely what did the injury. I had escargots, I really like escargots, however everybody else in my group had them. I additionally had salmon so possibly it was a nasty piece of fish.

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“I used to be throwing up for the entire night time and I could not sleep a lot. That was after I arrived in Paris on Tuesday, I did not apply on Wednesday, I practiced on Thursday but it surely was not fairly, I might barely do something. I used to be getting a number of nausea and acid reflux disease, I wasn’t consuming. I used to be afraid to eat something. I did not have an urge for food.”

Pegula did not allow her illness to wreak havoc on her pre-tournament preparations, though, with the 29-year-old having since won both of her opening matches against Danielle Collins and Camila Giorgi without dropping a single set. She went on to explain that her victory over Collins helped to ease her nerves before she managed to catch up on some much-needed sleep ahead of her second-round triumph over Giorgi.

“The good factor was I felt I used to be taking part in OK, however simply not feeling bodily good,” added Pegula. “Still, I did not really feel blissful or ready. I needed to try to flip it right into a optimistic, which was by actually specializing in me. I used to be like ‘proper, I must get by way of this match’ as a result of I knew I had two days off after to get well.

“That was my motivation: to walk in, get through, be super focused and hope for the best. Actually I played a decent match against Danielle, who is someone I know well and is a great player. Luckily I came around by the weekend, caught up on sleep and got some good practice in. Now I’m feeling a lot better and ready to go.”

It stays to be seen whether or not Pegula will be capable to clinch her maiden Grand Slam title by successful the French Open this 12 months as she seems to enhance on her run to the ultimate at Roland Garros final time round. She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open again in January and will probably be determined to place her optimistic momentum to good use in her bid to say her first piece of main silverware over the subsequent few weeks.

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