Jessica Pegula has poked fun at herself and also gave a glimpse of the often unseen side of professional sport after she received an unwanted birthday “gift” from Barbora Krejcikova at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

World No 3 Pegula was dumped out of the WTA 1000 event on her Friday as she went down 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 against Krejcikova in the semi-final.

With her participation in the tournament and the Middle Eastern swing over, it was time to head back to home to the United States, but the American – who turned 29 on February 24 – saw lighter side of getting beaten on her birthday.

“Everyone: ‘What is it like playing on tour? It must be so amazing!'” she said in a post on Twitter.

“Me: gets bagled [sic] on your birthday, sitting eating Doritos at midnight, waiting to get on a 16 hr flight home.”

Pegula, who reached the quarter-final of the Australian Open, had an excellent two weeks in the Middle East as she reached the final of the Qatar Open last week – losing against world No 1 Iga Swiatek – while she made it to the semi-final in Dubai this week.

“In all seriousness proud of my efforts the past two weeks. Time for some rest,” she said in a follow-up tweet.

Of course her fellow tennis players knew exactly how she felt with 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu replying: “I feel this on the deepest level possible.”

Pegula will have some time for late birthday celebrations as she will have the next week off as she is only due to return to WTA action at the Indian Wells Open, which gets underway on March 6, where she will be seeded third before heading to Florida for the Miami Open two weeks later.

Last year the lost in the second round in Indian Wells while she reached the semi-final in Miami.

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Earlier in the week Pegula was asked how she kept her focus on tennis and replied: “I think tennis always comes first for me, for everything. But I think it’s also helped me, when I’m off the court, to kind of relax, kind of look at other things, work on other things.

“I think that’s important to have a balance in life. I think it’s helped me. I don’t know about other people, but for at least the last few years it’s helped me have other things to work on.

“I think it also helps because then when I go back on court, I am like, okay, this is my time to 100% put this in the gym or in my warm-ups or in my recovery or in my matches and practices. I think it helps me kind of put things where they’re supposed to be where I can fully give 100% into each thing, but have it kind of in different boxes and stuff like that.

“I think it helps me be more professional off the court and on the court.”

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