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“She can leave away right after her singles final, but she is such a selfless and generous girl,” Zhang wrote on Instagram while chronicling the travel difficulties that quartet would’ve otherwise had. The 36-year-old said that trips from Austin to nearby airports including Dallas and Houston, or a late-night layover in Los Angeles, just to get to Palm Springs were in their future were it not for Pegula’s “warm heart.”
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“Thank you for showing me the beautiful California morning,” Zhang added in the post, which Blinkova reposted to her own Instagram story to also thank world No. 4 Pegula for her “kindness and generosity.”
Yuan, the 2024 Austin singles champion who reached the quarterfinals in Indian Wells last year, estimated that the trip saved her at least “nine hours of driving” after she teamed with Blinkova to defeat Zhang and Kessler in a hard-fought three-set match.
Main-draw play at the first combined ATP and WTA 1000-level event of the year begins on Wednesday.
