Jessica Pegula opens up on life in tennis - '‘Having respect among my peers is more important'

She has played 106 matches across singles and doubles this season, is an active member on the WTA Player Council, and is ranked a career-high No. 3 in the world this week (in singles and doubles) – Jessica Pegula is arguably the hardest-working player in women’s tennis and has quietly put together an incredibly consistent 2022 campaign.

The 28-year-old American claimed the biggest title of her career on the eve of the WTA Finals; knocking out four Grand Slam champions in consecutive matches before defeating world No. 6 Maria Sakkari to lift the 1000-level trophy in Guadalajara.

“I always felt like she's really consistent, and I'm pretty happy that she won Guadalajara because I felt like she deserved to have this big title, even earlier,” said world No.1 Iga Swiatek of Pegula.

“She is that kind of person that I feel like you can trust her. She's on the Player Council and she's always been helpful. Really it feels like she knows what she's doing. She's really intelligent on court as well.”

Indeed, Pegula is a true student of the game and can break down an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses like few other on tour.

A thoughtful interviewee and honest narrator of her own career path, Pegula was understandably “frustrated” when she lost to the eventual champion at eight different tournaments this season.

While losing to the person who went on to win the tournament can offer some solace to the defeated player, for Pegula, it got increasingly annoying suffering that fate over and over again in 2022.

“It just gets frustrating after it happening so many times in a year; I don’t think that’s happened so many times to someone else as it did to me, so that’s why I was very frustrated,” Pegula told Eurosport in an interview on the sidelines of the WTA Finals in Fort Worth.

“But at the same time I think you have to look at it as, it’s almost more challenging to keep pushing yourself and to keep finding motivation, like, ‘Okay, I can do this, I’m right there’, and I think with my draw in Guadalajara, it was such a difficult draw with so many Grand Slam champions.

"All these challenges and I just did a good job of handling it, knowing I’m in a really tough section and maybe someone in my section is going to win the tournament and I think just decided more like, ‘Okay this is my chance to work my way through the draw and be that person that’s going to win’.

“Luckily it worked out but it’s definitely challenging but at the same time if you take it the right way it can be extremely motivating.”

Since the start of 2021, Pegula has won more matches at the WTA-1000 level than anyone else on tour, tallying 39 victories in that category over the past two seasons.

The American No. 1 is one of only two players to make the quarter-finals at three of the four majors in 2022 and despite a tough WTA Finals debut this week in Fort Worth, having missed out on the semi-finals in both singles and doubles, Pegula has plenty to be proud of heading into the offseason - she still has Billie Jean King Cup Finals left.

Pegula’s Guadalajara triumph ended a three-year wait for a second WTA title – a journey that saw her claw her way up the rankings and establish herself among the circuit’s elite.

Hailing from a wealthy family that owns two sports franchises, the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, Pegula feels her story is not necessarily one that people root for, and she says it’s totally understandable.

Still, in a solitary sport like tennis, it must be a lonely feeling thinking that fans don’t want to root for her, I ask.

“There are so many stories of people coming up and having to earn their way. I think I know, and other people know, in the tennis world that, of course, you can’t be successful without working really hard and putting in the work and the hours,” responded Pegula.

“But I think also to that kind of extent there’s so many people that don’t know about tennis that are kind of like, ‘Oh, she probably had everything given to her, she probably had the best coaches and the best stuff’.

“I definitely know from personal experience, just because you can afford so-called the best coach in the world, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to work. And I think that is a misconception, not just in tennis, but maybe sports, that it doesn’t matter who it is, sometimes it’s the fit, or the personality fit, the way you handle your career as tennis it's just so different.

“So I think sometimes I definitely get the feeling that people don't want to root for me because it's not more of like the fairytale, Cinderella story, which is fine, and I'm okay with that.

“But I think at the same time, everyone that I know in the tennis world and all the players and all the team, definitely see that I put in the work. I think having that respect amongst my peers is more important because I know what they see and it doesn't really matter what anyone else doesn't see.

“Because it's all the work I put in that people don't see. And I think it was really nice for Maria Sakkari to say like, ‘You're very humble and hardworking, you totally deserve it’. I thought that was really sweet and really genuine for her to say something like that because it was just kind of solidifying what I already knew and the work that I put in and trying to be respectful to everyone.”

Pegula and Coco Gauff have formed a successful, and popular, partnership on the doubles court this season, winning three titles together and making the French Open final.

Their respective years in singles have had many parallels as they became the first American pair to be ranked inside the top four simultaneously since Serena and Venus Williams in 2010.

They are also the first doubles duo to compete in singles and doubles at the same WTA Finals since the Williams sisters in 2009.

“It's crazy to me that I've been able to see stats where like, ‘since Serena, since Venus, since Serena and Venus’. And obviously I don't have the Grand Slam accolades that they do. And to be honest, I never will, I’m 28 I'm not going to win 22 Grand Slams, but I just think it's crazy that in that realm I'm able to hit and be mentioned in the same statistics as her [Serena],” said Pegula.

“I remember I think the Madrid final was like, even the semi-final I think it was the first American since I don't know Serena or Venus to make it there. So it's just crazy to be mentioned even in the same statistics as them.

“I never really realised it until I started doing well even here with Coco, I don't think we even realised it. We're like, ‘really we're the first Americans since…?’ I'm like, that's crazy. I think we just think it’s really cool. It's something special that we can always say and always carry with us for the rest of our years.”

Pegula is 10 years older than her doubles partner Gauff and she admits the teen phenom helps keep her young.

“I think it's great because she's never really tired,” laughed Pegula.

“I think that also gives me a lot of relief because playing with other singles players is tough because sometimes they don't maybe want to finish a tournament or they want to save themselves for singles or they don't want to get hurt; so I think honestly, for both of us knowing that we're pretty committed to singles and doubles, and we don't really like to bail out and I think we don't really like sending that message and with her being young and energetic and wanting to do so well, very motivated, it makes it just easier to have a partnership where you're like, we know we're gonna go out there and do our best no matter what.

“And that's a different aspect that maybe people don't think about but for someone that like us, who play singles and doubles it's really important and that we feel I think it's like a trust within each other that we're gonna go out there and play and be committed and stay committed.”

Away from the court, Pegula wears many hats.

She has her own skincare line called Ready 24, is a founding member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Tennis Association (AAPITA) and a member of the WTA Player Council.

“I think at first the Player Council was just something that was different. I kind of got talked into it too because a lot of people wanted me to be on it, but I wasn't really sure; they thought I would be helpful,” she explained.

“So I think it was just fun to learn a lot; you learn a lot about how things work. I think it changes your perspective on some things, that some things aren't as easy as it seems.

“So I think it's just been a really good learning experience and educational experience. And yeah, I want everyone to be happy. That’s the whole point, all of us on the council I think we're really dedicated to players and I think we have a really good council.

“We all talk a lot about many different things. We're not afraid to share information or our thoughts or what we think and for the most part, we always agree.

“We’re all players from different rankings, different countries, and we agree on pretty much everything. And so I think having that trust within our council too, I think that's why the players definitely like us and trust us and even if they don't know all the info, they know that we're doing the right thing.”