Jessica Pegula rubbishes Coco Gauff's claims after receiving a scolding over the doubles decision

Jessica Pegula has slammed claims that she and Coco Gauff are no longer playing doubles together. 

The American stars are in the top 10 of the rankings in both singles and doubles, but only entered the singles tournament in Washington last week. And Pegula claimed that the pair often received “c**p” for juggling both events each week.

Gauff and Pegula have formed a solid doubles partnership in the last couple of years, winning five titles together and reaching two Grand Slam finals. The pair often go on double duty, also playing in the singles draws at the biggest tournaments throughout the year. 

But they were noticeably absent from the doubles draw at last week’s Mubalada Citi DC Open despite entering the singles competition, where Gauff went on to lift the title while Pegula lost in the semi-final. They have already reunited in Montreal for the Canadian Open, where the 29-year-old has been forced to quash any rumours of a split. Oh no,” the world No 3 in both singles and doubles said when asked whether they were no longer a team. 

“We’re playing with each other for the rest of the year.” Pegula then said she had seen a headline claiming they had ended their partnership and quickly put the claims to bed. She continued: “You know what, someone sent me that headline and I was like, ‘That’s weird. 

I don’t know where on Earth that came from.’ Just because we literally didn’t play one week together, everyone was like, ‘You’re not playing?’ and I was like, ‘Relax.’” Pegula also noted that the split rumours were strange given that both women had received criticism for playing on both circuits instead of focusing on singles.

“Everyone gives us c**p for playing too much and then we didn’t play DC and then we were getting so many questions. But no, we’re still playing,” she added.