Jessika Ponchet

Jessika Ponchet (born 26 September 1996) is a French professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 104 in singles, achieved on 9 September 2024, and No. 101 in doubles, reached on 28 November 2022.

Career Ponchet did not play any ITF Junior Circuit tournaments, plunging straight into the ITF Women's Circuit at the age of 14.

2011–2013 Ponchet played the singles events of four tournaments and the doubles event of one tournament on the 2011 ITF Circuit, starting with a $100k tournament held in early July in the French city of Biarritz. She played a total of 11 and 18 ITF tournaments in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

2014–2016 Ponchet played a total of 17 tournaments on the ITF Circuit in 2014. She suffered a major setback when torn knee ligaments forced her to miss tournaments in the first eight months of 2015. She played the singles events of seven tournaments and one doubles event on the 2015 ITF Circuit.

Ponchet made her WTA 125 debut at the Open de Limoges, entering only its singles event. She received a wildcard for the main draw, where she defeated her compatriot, Chloé Paquet, in the first round and lost to the No. 7 seed, Kaia Kanepi, in the second. but she lost in the first round to third seed Garbiñe Muguruza. Prior to the Australian Open, Ponchet had in her entire career played in the singles main-draw event of just one tournament that was at a higher level than the ITF Women's Circuit (the 2017 Open de Limoges) and had never even faced a player ranked in the top 100 of the WTA singles rankings.

Ponchet made her French Open debut, after receiving a wildcard for the singles main draw, where she lost in the first round to the unseeded Lucie Šafářová, in straight sets.

At the 2019 Australian Open, Ponchet reached the singles main draw where she lost in the first round to 19th-seeded Caroline Garcia, after winning all her three qualifying matches without dropping a set.

On 9 April 2019, in her first-round match at the $25k tournament in Sunderland, Ponchet was leading Tara Moore 6–0, 5–0 and had a match point to achieve a double bagel, but Moore staged a comeback to win 0–6, 7–6, 6–3.

2023: First WTA 125 doubles title Ponchet received wildcards for the French Open for the singles main draw, and in doubles partnering Elixane Lechemia. She entered the Guangzhou Open main draw as a lucky loser but lost to qualifier Moyuka Uchijima.

Partnering Maia Lumsden, Ponchet won her first WTA 125 doubles title at the Open de Rouen, defeating top seeds Anna Bondár and Kimberley Zimmermann in straight sets in the final.

2024: US Open third round Ponchet qualified for the Rosmalen Open but lost to Aleksandra Krunić in the first round. Ranked No. 143, Ponchet made her singles main-draw debut at the US Open, after winning all three of her qualifying matches in straight sets. She then defeated Zheng Saisai in the first round for her first match win at a major. She reached a Grand Slam tournament third round for the first time, after receiving a walkover in the second when fourth seed Elena Rybakina withdrew because of injury. As a result, she moved close to 40 positions up in the WTA rankings to a new career-high at No. 104 on 9 September 2024. In the third round, she lost to Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets.

After entering the singles main draw of the Japan Women's Open as a lucky loser, she failed to convert a match point in the third set in her first round loss to eighth seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto. In the first round of the Hong Kong Open, the unseeded Ponchet posted her second career top-50 win by defeating fourth seed Wang Xinyu to reach the second round, before losing to wildcard entrant Sofia Kenin.

2025: First two WTA Tour quarterfinals Gaining entry to the main-draw as a lucky loser, Ponchet defeated qualifiers Margaux Rouvroy and Fiona Ferro to reach her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Rouen Open, where she lost to Elena-Gabriela Ruse.

Once again entering the main draw as a lucky loser at the Prague Open, she made it through to the quarterfinals with wins over fellow lucky loser Nina Stojanović and wildcard entrant Barbora Palicová. Ponchet lost to Tereza Valentová in the last eight.

In December, teaming up with Tamara Korpatsch, Ponchet won her second WTA 125 doubles title at the Open Angers Arena Loire, defeating Jesika Malečková and Miriam Škoch in the final. The following week at the Open de Limoges, she combined with fellow French player Elsa Jacquemot to reach the doubles final, but they lost to top seeds Cristina Bucșa and Zhang Shuai.

Performance timelines

Singles Current through the 2024 US Open.

WTA 125 finals Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups)

ITF Circuit finals Singles: 19 (10 titles, 9 runner-ups) LegendW100 tournaments (0–2)W80 tournaments (1–0)W60/75 tournaments (1–1)W40 tournaments (1–0)W25 tournaments (4–3)W10 tournaments (3–3)Finals by surfaceHard (7–7)Clay (3–1)Grass (0–1)

Doubles: 26 (14 titles, 12 runner-ups) LegendW100 tournaments (1–1)W80 tournaments (1–1)W60/75 tournaments (7–4)W25 tournaments (2–3)W10/15 tournaments (3–3)Finals by surfaceHard (10–9)Clay (4–2)Carpet (0–1)