QATAR TOTAL ENERGIES OPEN

February 13, 2023

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back. A very successful year for you here last year. How do you feel about being back here in Doha?

JESSICA PEGULA: Definitely really excited. I think Coco and I have a lot of good memories here. Especially winning the doubles last year led to a really successful year for us together in doubles and singles as well, so definitely excited to get going here and happy to be back.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you talk about when did you go back to your country after the Australian Open, and how did you prepare for this tournament?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, so I went back home right after Australia and then flew here, so I was home in between. Got to go home. Unfortunately I got a little sick when I went home, but was able to kind of rest and recover and had about 10 days at home before I flew here. Definitely had some rest.

It's always nice to be back home after a long trip to Australia. It can be very tiring and everything with the jet lag, but, yeah, excited to be back and just, you know, hit the practice courts and tried to prepare for this event.

Q. Just a general question. I don't know if maybe "late bloomer" is bad words to describe you or not? With all respect, of course. I'm pretty sure you have gone through many ups and downs and maybe some doubts. My question is if you can you pick up like one or two matches or tournaments, which you can call like turning point, what it would be?

JESSICA PEGULA: I would definitely say probably Australian Open three years ago now was a big turning point I think when I reached the quarters there, and that was definitely my biggest result at that point by far. So I think that was a big turning point.

After that, actually I ended up coming here and qualifying and making quarters or semis or something like that as well. So that kind of whole swing definitely really helped me and was a big tournament for me. I would say I'm kind of a little bit of a late bloomer, but I think nowadays we are seeing players play much later into their careers, so hopefully that will change. Maybe it won't be so much late bloomer. Maybe it's just the game everyone is kind of growing at a different pace.

Yeah, I would say definitely Australian Open three years ago was probably the main tournament that kind of boosted my confidence. And probably I think Cincinnati I think the year before, as well, was probably a big tournament for me where I qualified and made quarters and beat Sabalenka and some really good players. So that was also another really big turning point.

Q. Before the Australian Open or Cincinnati, did you change anything tactically, like mindset or something or preparation for the tournament?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, well, I think it was the COVID year actually. So there weren't a lot of fans and there weren't a lot of people. I just remember thinking to myself, like, I got in really good shape and I was healthy, No. 1. I think that was the main thing for me is staying healthy and being able to play like a full year of lots of matches and really gain experience and challenge myself.

But I think also during COVID I just decided that I was going to come out and compete, and I knew a lot of girls maybe weren't feeling the same way. Maybe it was hard for them with no fans. It was hard with all the rules.

I think my mindset was just to go out there to be the toughest one in all the situations during that year because it was really tough with not playing with fans and having to go through so many rules and regulations with everything. It was really difficult. Mentally it was really very tiring.

So I think I just decided that I wasn't going to complain or kind of get upset about that, that I was going to try and use it to my advantage as much as I could. I think I was able to win a lot of matches and then get really confident to follow that up and going into the next few years.

Q. You're calling yourself a late bloomer. I wonder if you say that with kind of regrets, things you wish you would have figured out earlier, or that was just the past for you and that cannot be an example for others, or...

JESSICA PEGULA: Well, I guess I say "late bloomer," but I hope that changes, because I think we are playing much later. We see girls doing well in their 30s, and then we see girls doing well when they're 18, which I think is still great for the sport, because you're seeing that it's possible at any age.

Also, it's just a long journey through that time span of a lot of ups and downs. For me, I definitely don't regret it. I think I went through a lot of injuries when I was younger, but at the same time, because of that I think it made me a lot stronger and a lot better player. I learned how to kind of deal with that adversity very young.

I think every player in some span of their careers is probably going to go through that, and I think that for me it just happened pretty young or in my early 20s and kind of set me back in that term a little bit, but at the same time, I think I just grew so much from it that I wouldn't be the player I am today without that. So I don't regret that at all.

Q. I wanted to talk to you about the letter you put out on social media a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to ask you, is journaling something you did all your life, or was it particularly in the weeks of the Australian Open? If so, if you have done it all your life, I want to know how much time you spent doing it, and in Australia again, how much time did you spend doing it?

JESSICA PEGULA: So I have journaled on and off throughout my career, sometimes more than others. I have always kind of enjoyed writing. I've never actually sat down and seriously wrote something like that where I knew I was going to send it out and I was writing something specific.

But in that case in Australia, I like decided I wanted to write something and I wanted to put it out there, and I wanted it to be with the Players' Tribune, and I kind of decided all those things probably first week of Australian Open.

So one night it was like 2:00 a.m. and I couldn't sleep. I was like, Okay, I'm just going to write this.

I just opened up a Word document and I just wrote it. Obviously I edited it a little bit here and there throughout the process. Then when I got home I really kind of cleaned it up and had other people spellcheck and grammar check everything. It was probably the first time where I've actually really sat down and written something specific for a specific purpose.

But journaling I think is something that's great. I think it's really good. Especially when you're on the road sometimes it can get hard. You know, with all that's going on different weeks it feels like Groundhog Day. So I think sometimes I just like to do more gratitude journals where I will write down something I'm grateful for or I'll write down anything positive or negative just to get it out.

I don't do it super consistently, but when I feel like I need to is when I usually do. I think it's very therapeutic. And same thing for writing that letter, it was also very therapeutic and, yeah, something I enjoy. Maybe one day I will do more.

Q. Is it very exhausting also?

JESSICA PEGULA: What do you mean, like writing?

Q. The writing.

JESSICA PEGULA: Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes when you're trying to finish it, and you don't know if it's ready or not, I'm sure you guys know as you journal and write in a report, you never know if it's good enough.

So it was hard to figure out when that point was where I should stop. And mentally reading it over and over again, I was, like, Okay, I can't read this anymore.

Yeah, I think it can be a little mentally draining when you're trying to purposely put it out for other people to read, make sure that it's perfect, and that got kind of tiring.

Q. About the journal, when you are at tournaments playing, do you try to block everything out? Does it work as a motive for you? Everything happening at home, is it an extra motive for you?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think it goes both ways. It can be motivation. It can be kind of a way for me to relax kind of at tournaments where I'm thinking about other things.

It honestly helps me not think about it, because also I'm in another time zone, in a different country. That sounds kind of weird, but at the same time, it's hard to feel like you're really home when you're so far away. When the time change is different, when you can't talk to people like you normally do when you are not home and your family is not all around you constantly or you're hanging out with them.

I think really just being away from home is just different. I wouldn't say I try to block it out, because I don't want to totally block it out. I think tennis just kind of naturally does that where you get wrapped up in your day of training and going to the gym and doing press and all these things, and you have matches that naturally I think it just gets your mind off of those things.

I don't know. It's always kind of been like that for me. I don't know. Other players might be different. I don't purposely try to block it out. I think it's just I'm doing my job and my career in a different part of the world, and that's just what I focus on for these weeks.

Q. Please don't take away our job. (Laughter.) Different subject, about your play style, so you pick ball very early, right after the ball bounces, and you hit the ball really flat and very low, which is a bit different from typical American players. Seems like more like East Asian player.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yes, it does.

Q. How did you learn or when did you start playing like that way? Why do you think that your play style became like that?

JESSICA PEGULA: You know, that's a good question. I don't really know. I started playing when I was about like five or six. I started taking like some lessons when I was about seven. My older sister played tennis at college, tennis player, and my family played a little bit as well just for fun.

I just started doing it after school. I think I had some really great coaches. I mean, I grew up in Pennsylvania in a small town in Wexford, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh, not really known for being a tennis place, but I think I had some good coaches that taught me some good technique. I think I had very good hand/eye coordination and good timing.

I think athletic-wise I'm not like Iga or Coco where I'm sliding all over the court, but I think my hand and eye coordination is also very, very good. So I'm able to time the ball well. Sometimes I wish I hit with more spin. I think sometimes I try, but naturally it's just not my thing.

So, yeah, I don't know how my game really developed into that. I think it's just how I kind of always hit the ball and struck the ball, and it just became more my game style as I got older.

Obviously playing that way I have to be careful with my margin and what shots I go for, so I think as I got older I developed it a lot more into playing smarter, being more efficient, trying to take the ball earlier, and then try to be aggressive as well but keep my margins in, because I know I don't have a lot of margin, I don't hit a lot of spin.

But I think when I'm playing hard and deep that it really bothers a lot of girls, because the ball stays pretty low and kind of skids through the court.

Yeah, I don't really know. I think it was just how I grew up playing and striking the ball and naturally just how I like to play. Yeah, I have just gotten really good at it (smiling).