MUBADALA CITI DC OPEN

July 20, 2025

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Jessie, welcome back to D.C. Can you share some thoughts ahead of the hardcourt swing.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, excited to be back. Definitely my favorite part of the year. I love being in North America. I love playing on the hard courts. Always just a fun swing for me. I feel like I always play some of my best tennis here, as well.

I don't know if it's just because I enjoy the tournaments that I get to play, enjoy being in the U.S., as well, so just looking forward to it. It's gone by so fast. I can't believe we're already back here.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How are you feeling going into the hard-court season as far as preparing these past couple of weeks? Where are you in terms of that progress?

JESSICA PEGULA: I mean, I think I have been playing some really good tennis. Wimbledon obviously was not the result that I was looking for, of course. I think it was a weird Wimbledon, though. I think a lot of players didn't have the results that they wanted.

But at the same time, I mean, I won Bad Homburg three days before that. I was playing good tennis. I'm just trying to focus on the fact that I was playing well, you know, even at the French, doing well in Bad Homburg, even playing well in Berlin, losing a crazy match. I feel like I have been playing some really good tennis, and now I'm just back on probably my favorite surface and I feel like my best surface.

Hopefully all of the things I have been working on and I have been doing in most of my matches will just keep getting better and better. I feel pretty good.

Q. How did you process your Wimbledon result? Did it make more sense to you over time?

JESSICA PEGULA: At Wimbledon?

Q. Yeah, your Wimbledon result. And what you have been doing in the weeks since then?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I mean, it's disappointing, but it was almost like I got killed, like, so bad that you're kind of just like, okay, just flush that one and move on. There's not much to really say or do.

It was a bad match for me, but at the same time, she played great and it was a great moment for her. So I feel like I always try to look at things with a good perspective that sometimes it's not always your moment. Sometimes it's the other person's moment.

I mean, I have had it be my moment quite a bit, so I think I tried to look at that with that perspective that it wasn't the week for me, and I just want to take as much as I can and what I have learned from that match and kind of incorporate that into the couple of weeks. But again, it's not like rewriting the wheel and having to change a bunch of things just because of one match.

You know, so I think I processed it pretty fast. The good thing is I was able to be home and get two really solid weeks at home before coming on the hard-court swing. It was really nice being home and spending time with my family and getting in a good training block.

Q. Given that you beat Iga in the final of Bad Homburg, what was your level of surprise at her winning Wimbledon in the manner that she did? What did you notice about her specifically on the grass that was maybe different this year?

JESSICA PEGULA: I thought she was serving a lot bigger. I didn't really watch her much during Wimbledon. I'm not sure if that was better. But she was serving really big in Bad Homburg and playing good tennis and beat good grass-court players. I thought our final was a really high level. It was super close.

You know, she is always kind of down on herself about grass, and I was, like, Hey, you're playing really good on grass. I'm not really sure why you think you're bad on grass or what it is.

So it was kind of funny that she ended up winning Wimbledon. I was, like, of course I said that, and we had that moment and we played in the final, and then she wins Wimbledon, but that's just tennis for you. You kind of never know. She's a great player anyway, so she's going to be good on any surface.

But yeah, it is interesting for -- tennis is weird. You have a lot of weird things that happen over the course of two weeks.

Q. Totally different direction here. You have a guest with you on-stage. You have been asked about dogs in your career, but who is the guest you have here with you?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, so this is Tucker. Yeah, I have been working with this nonprofit K9s for Warriors in Jacksonville. A couple of years ago, I don't know if you remember, I had Ace who was also the same thing I sponsored through my charity, A Lending Paw. We sponsor service dogs to get trained for a lot of veterans through K9s for Warriors.

It's been really great working with them. They have been awesome and were totally open to doing another dog this year. Yeah, it's been really, really fun.

It was amazing that they were able to name him Tucker, as well, after my lab that passed away earlier this year. Yeah, it's been really cool.

All the girls love having a dog around, so it instantly lifts everybody's mood on-site. A few years ago with Ace, we did it at the US Open which was kind of hectic, because it's really busy. We actually wanted to do it here originally.

So this time we did it here in D.C. where it's a little bit calmer, not as much going on, and he's doing some training. I think he's four to five months into his training? Hopefully he goes on to graduate and will get matched with a veteran. Yea, it's really, really cool.

Q. That's a hard one to follow. (Laughter.) A much less-fun question here. Are you someone who often has changed your equipment over the years?

JESSICA PEGULA: Changed my what?

Q. Equipment.

JESSICA PEGULA: Equipment?

Q. Your racquet, in particular? Or I would imagine that's a difficult thing for a tennis player to do.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, it's pretty difficult.

Q. I don't know what your history is with that.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I mean, I switched to my racquet, the Yonex EZONE, I mean, I was not -- I think when I started working with somebody like six, seven years ago, I loved it right away. It was when I was coming back from injury, so I had a lot of time where I was trying a lot of different racquets because my coach at the time really wanted me to switch that and strings. It was one of those racquets where as soon as I started hitting with it I knew right away I was a better player with that racquet, but I feel like unless you have that sensation it's really hard to switch.

It was good because I had a lot of time. I had a lot of time to get used to it, to play with it, and I virtually came back from an injury with it. So it's different when you're having really good results in the middle of a season or a really good year, and then all of a sudden you want to change racquets, and you're, like, Why would I do that?

For me, it was like I was starting from the bottom, anyway, so it didn't really make as much of a difference. Yeah, I think the racquets and the string and stuff are really, really important.

I have seen a lot of players make a lot of good switches and maybe ones that didn't work out, but to me, I mean, it's hard because again, it takes some time to get used to and you don't know if you're wasting your time or making the wrong decision, but to me I always feel like you have to try. Especially with technology now and how good the players are, you never know if a racquet is really going to help you.

So I'm always for it. I'm always interested in learning and seeing what other players are doing. But at the end of the day, I have not, besides then, I haven't switched in a very long time, anything, really.

Q. Following up on the EZONE, obviously Maddie switched to that frame earlier this year and had a lot of success with it. Did she ask you about it when she was making the switch? Does it feel like that's a frame that a lot of players are starting to gravitate towards?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, it's a great racquet. There's different models of it, obviously depending on what year you played with it. I think she did mention she was trying stuff, and I think she tried it and she's, like, Guys, I think I'm going to be hitting with the EZONE.

I felt like that was a good switch for her. If she told me she was switching to a Babolat, I would have been, Oh, gosh, no, maybe don't do that, you don't want to do that.

But for how she played, I felt she will still play really well with that racquet. And with her situation is a pretty big anomaly. To be able to switch and pretty much not lose a match for the whole first couple of months of the season with it is pretty crazy. That doesn't happen. That doesn't happen very often.

Yeah, she did mention it a few times. Yeah, it was just funny, because we all know, so you don't really pay attention, but you kind of know what players play with what racquets, so it's weird seeing her with a Yonex racquet, especially because she was with Wilson for so long. It was weird seeing it, but obviously it worked out for her.

Q. One more on being back here, maybe it feels like a while ago when you won your first title in these parts, but so much had happened prior to that, injuries, et cetera, you have done a whole lot of winning since then. Curious what that week and maybe this tournament meant for you, thinking back to getting over that hump and everything that's kind of happened since.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah. It was a huge breakthrough for me as a player. It was the first professional title I had ever won. I never even won a challenger singles title.

So for me, getting that monkey off my back, being able to do it at a tour level for the first time was great, and to think that was such a big mountain for me to climb at the time and now I'm sitting here and I have won, I don't know, eight or nine or whatever it is, and doubles titles, as well, it's kind of funny how things can seem far away, but once you do them it becomes easier, it's less of a mountain to get over.

But it definitely was a really fun week for me here, and I still feel like I have those memories every time I come back. I know so many of the volunteers and the people that work this tournament, from the security to the transport that have seen me and helped me over all the last four or five, whatever I'm on, six years ago? Over the last six years.

So it's been really cool, and I still have that same kind of feeling every time I come back here, and that's why I always feel like I can play good tennis here and have some good results. So, yeah, I love coming back here.