PREVIEWING AN ACTION-PACKED WEDNESDAY

Top seed and World No. 4 Jessica Pegula, who celebrated her 31st birthday in Austin on Monday, will face Nuria Parrizas Diaz, a 33-year-old Spaniard ranked World No. 107, in the second match on Center Court on Wednesday.

This is the second meeting between the two, with Pegula winning 7-6 (3), 6-2 when they faced each other in the third round of the 2022 Australian Open.

“We played a pretty big match in Australia and I haven’t played her since,” Pegula said, “so I think I’ll just try to remember what I did well in that match and kind of use those things and also maybe check out some other matches, see how she’s been playing recently.”

She also called Parrizas Diaz a “tricky” player, adding, “She hits well, super flat, super clean… kind of a different type of player.”

Also in Pegula’s half of the draw are 37-year-old Tatjana Maria, who faces Anna Blinkova in the first match on Center Court, and 31-year-old Alja Tomljanovic, who will face Jodie Burrage (who defeated the 34-year-old Kvitova on Tuesday).

While there’s plenty of experience in the top half of the draw, Pegula is the only remaining seed. The bottom half still has No. 2 seed Diana Shnaider, who survived a big scare on Tuesday with a tight final third set, and No. 8 seed Suzan Lemans, who also won in three sets to advance. American and No. 5 seed McCartney Kessler completes the first-round action when she faces “lucky loser” Viktorija Golubic. The Swiss player, ranked No. 104, lost in the final round of qualifying but was bumped up to the main draw when Caty McNally withdrew because of injury.