Jessica Pegula: One win away from her childhood dream
Pegula is the first player from Western New York to reach the finals of one of tennis’ Grand Slam tournaments, which includes the U.S. Open, French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon.
A couple of weekends ago, Jessica Pegula met with me in the lobby of the Manhattan hotel she’s calling home during the U.S. Open. It was an easygoing conversation at the front end of the biggest three weeks of her year, and after about 40 minutes of chatting, I said, “I’ll see you over the next couple of weeks.”
She smiled and said, “OK, hopefully I’m still here.”
She is. And she has one more win to go to achieve a dream she’s held onto tightly since she was a child.
Pegula, a Buffalo native and the world’s sixth-ranked tennis player, is playing this afternoon in the finals of the U.S. Open. The championship match against No. 2-ranked Aryna Sabalenka comes after a semifinals contest here Thursday night against Karolina Muchova.
She’s the first player from Western New York to reach the finals of a tennis Grand Slam tournament, which include the U.S. Open, French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. (Grand Island native Jimmy Arias reached the U.S. Open semifinal in 1983, when he lost to Ivan Lendl.)
Reaching the finals of a Slam is loosely the tennis equivalent of making it to the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup Finals. That alone is an elusive goal Pegula can appreciate more deeply than most, since her family owns the Buffalo Bills and Sabres. But until now, reaching the final rounds of tennis’ most prominent tournaments has eluded Pegula. At 30, she’s had a long career with plenty of tournament wins – six singles titles, including two this year – but none have been in the Slams. Until a few days ago, she never advanced past a quarterfinal round in a Slam – she had appeared in six, and lost all six.
Wednesday night, after defeating first-ranked Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals – which led to the semifinal contest against Muchova – she began her news conference jovially. “I would like to say that I’m so happy that you guys cannot ask me about making it to the semis,” she said, covering her face with her hands. “That was like – oh my gosh. It wasn’t even a me thing. It was just more like people asking me. I’m really happy to be through to the semifinals.”
Thursday night’s semifinals were tougher. Excruciating, at points. Pegula faced 28-year-old Muchova, who dominated the first set, winning 6-1. Pegula fought back in the second set, winning 6-4, and took control in the third, finishing 6-2. When she won the match point, officially advancing her to the U.S. Open Finals, she raised her hands and burst into a smile. During the on-court interview in front of the crowd, she acknowledged her coaches and family, which included her sister, brother and husband watching from the stadium’s lower bowl, and her father, Terry Pegula, watching from a box. Her mother, Kim Pegula, who suffered cardiac arrest two years ago and has recovered mostly out of the public eye, usually watches Jessica’s matches on television.
Afterward, she told reporters, “It’s amazing. It’s a childhood dream. It’s what I wanted when I was a kid.”
To that point: Pegula’s grandfather Ralph Kerr told me once that he used to have his grandkids annually write down what they wanted to be when they grow up. The answer for Jessica’s siblings and cousins frequently changed – as they will with kids. But hers was always the same: professional tennis player.
“It’s a lot of work,” Jessica said Thursday night. “You couldn’t even imagine how much hard work goes into it.”
Jessica Pegula returns a shot to Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic during the women’s singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships Thursday in New York.
Pegula will face No. 2-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the championship match this afternoon. Associated Press
Ironically – although this may have helped her – Pegula put in less work during this year’s U.S. Open. In previous Opens, she played doubles and mixed doubles (with a men’s circuit player) along with singles. This year, she opted for a lighter schedule and focused on singles only. That meant six matches so far, with the championship being the seventh.
It also meant that if she had lost, she would have gone home earlier than in previous years.
Since she is, as she hoped, still here, I asked Pegula on Thursday night: “In the final push to win this thing, what do you do over the next couple of days?”
“Get home” – she means her hotel – “get some sleep, get some rest,” she said, adding that she’ll have a “super light” practice Friday to get her body warmed up for Saturday . “I’m not going to overdo it. I’m going to try and get ready for Saturday … just make sure the body and everything is feeling good.”
The question was large: How do you get ready for the biggest match of your life?
Her answer was simple: Take it easy. Warm up. Go play.