Tennis news: Jessica Pegula calls out WTA over photo edit ahead of Dubai Final

American tennis star Jessica Pegula was left enraged after an edited photo of her was posted to social media by the WTA.

Ahead of the Dubai Tennis Championships final, the organisation posted an image of the 31-year-old alongside Elina Svitolina.

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The two finalists were shown wearing their playing outfits, but Pegula was left looking extremely distorted.

Pegula’s waist was completely shrunk while her arms were also distorted. The world number five wasn’t happy and let the governing body know about it.

“WTF happened to my body?” Pegula commented under the post on Instagram.

She also took to X to reply to the image by writing: “Thank you for giving me the waist of my dreams but I think pieces of my arm are also missing. Not sure what happened here.”

It appears the image came unstuck thanks to a background removal error which mistakenly wiped out the white portions on the side of her outfit.

Despite the mishap, fellow tennis stars were quick to comment on Pegula’s look in the doctored upload.

Former USA star Jennifer Brady commented: “Waist of your dreams?”

2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys quipped: “That waist is SNATCHED #nophotoshop.”

Keys also responded directly to Pegula’s comment, joking: “All those 3 setters have you disappearing.”

The WTA quickly took the image down before posting the correct photo of an unedited Pegula alongside Svitolina.

Pegula put the mix up behind her in the final as she clinched her fourth WTA 1000 crown with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 victory.

The fourth-seeded American denied Svitolina a chance to win a third title in the northern emirate, and improved her recordagainst the Ukrainian to 6-3 head-to-head.

Pegula, who turns 32 on Tuesday, has made at least the semi-finals in each of her last seven tournaments and walks away from Dubai with a 10th career title.

“I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present. I’m just super proud of myself. I had to play at a very high level, it was awesome,” Pegula said in her on-court interview.

“I feel like when you can get off to a quick start, that eases the nerves a little bit.

“Mentally, I think, especially the match yesterday, I was down a set and 3-1, and I fought back, which made me feel free today. I trusted the things we’ve been working on and it paid off.”

The event was rocked by the withdrawal and retirements of more than 20 players, including the world’s top two in Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.

Still, the WTA 1000 tournament delivered a stellar semi-final line-up that featured four top-10 players, who fought for more than five hours across six sets.

“It just shows you the depth of women’s tennis. It just shows you the level is so high week in and week out. Even when you have a lot of players withdrawing, just because we’re missing a few, it doesn’t mean that we still can’t put on some great tennis,” Pegula said.

“My draw was very hard, it was a really tough draw. I was able to beat a couple top-10 players along the way. It definitely was not a cakewalk by any means.

“I’m super proud of the state our sport is in right now. I think it’s super strong.”

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