US OPEN

August 29, 2025

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

J. PEGULA/V. Azarenka

6-1, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Your thoughts on your performance today.

JESSICA PEGULA: It was a tough match. You know, with Vika, I feel like sometimes you're not -- she can be so on. I felt like she was struggling a little bit physically there, but then she kind of loosened up and started playing really well in the second, and actually served really well first string of games there in the second set and made it difficult.

Glad I was able to stay focused, and I felt like I was really, yeah, focused the entire time, no matter the score.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How do you separate being friends and on court you said you wanted to keep her moving because you knew she was physically compromised? How do you do that?

JESSICA PEGULA: I mean, it's tougher. You know, we know each other very well. We're pretty good friends, live pretty close to each other. I see her all the time. It can get tricky, but I think we're competitors.

I think at the end of the day we know we're trying to do our job and go out there and compete. You know, I think she would have the same mentality if it was the other way around. You know you have to do what you have to do, but at the same time, we have a lot of respect for each other, of course. I think you could see that when we embraced at the net.

There's always that respect. But you know, when you are out there battling and competing, you know, that's what we have to do. You just have to learn how to separate that.

Q. There's been a lot of stress at this slam so far, like Daniil, Ostapenko, Stefanos. I don't know if you saw that from yesterday. I'm curious, is there anything specific about this slam that makes it stressful in terms of, I don't know, it's end of season...

JESSICA PEGULA: Lots of drama (laughing). I don't know. My matches have been pretty no drama, so I'm not really sure what's going on with everybody else. I don't know. It's just New York City tends to bring out just a lot of drama, I guess.

I feel like the crowds, you know, they're pretty crazy. They kind of get everyone riled up. Like you said, everyone is tense. It's the last slam of the season. Your last chance to go deep at a slam for a while.

I think people maybe just get stressed out, and you're out there competing and fighting and trying to win. I think it just gets emotional. Adrenaline starts flowing. Yeah, people get into it.

Q. I wonder if you could quantify the advantage, or maybe you don't feel you have it, but if you feel you have it, the advantage that Ashe gives you. Can you liken it to home field advantage of, say, the Bills or the Sabres, and can you quantify it in terms of how much it does give you?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think it's a little bit of an advantage. You know, I do feel like I would be better on maybe a faster court, but at the same time, my experience playing on that court so many times I think is definitely an advantage compared to maybe some other players.

I've obviously kind of earned that right over the years. I mean, I remember when I was younger, I never hit on Ashe, I never played on Ashe. I was always on another court, Court 17 or maybe Grandstand if I was lucky. That's definitely changed.

I do think as you become a top player and you get slotted into those slots, you get more practice time on those courts. Specifically here being an American, I have played a lot there now. It can be different. Your perception of the court is different. The stands, it's big. It plays a little bit different.

Every court is different in its own sense, but I think I do have a little bit of an advantage. Maybe not always because, I mean, against other top players, they played on it just as much as me, but maybe against someone that hasn't gotten a lot of reps on that court, I think it is a little bit like a home court advantage.

Then, obviously, you throw in the crowd. If I'm playing someone and they're supporting me or the American or supporting me, it definitely I think plays a part.

Q. Generally one of the Marks is with you, one of the Marks is doing something else. When they're both at an event like this one, how does that change the dynamic, your prep, just kind of your whole space going into a tournament, a match, because it's pretty uncommon to see them both here.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah. They're not always here at the same time, but I wanted them both here just because they were both here last year, and you know, I did really well last year. I felt like I came into this tournament not with a lot of matches under my belt and not winning a lot, and I felt like if we're a team, that I wanted both of them here if they were able to be here.

Luckily, that was able to happen, but it doesn't really change much. I mean, we talk so much whether one's gone. I talk to both of them a lot. They talk to each other all the time. They're both pretty laid back. So there's not really any ego. There's no, you know, tension with who's in charge of what.

I think for the most part we're on the same wavelength of what I need to do and what needs to happen. That I'm thankful for because that's tough to do. Not everyone is able to do that with two different coaches.

But yeah, it doesn't really change much. I think they're good at kind of just, I don't know, staying in their lane and letting me kind of decide who I want to talk to more or who I want to feed the balls or however it's going. It's pretty easy.

Q. Coco was kind of emotional after her match. I'm sure you saw. You've always been one to kind of keep your emotions down and not show too much. What do fans not understand about what it's like to have all that kind of pressure on you and that she'd be sort of willing to show that in front of so many people and, yet, you don't?

JESSICA PEGULA: No, I mean, like she said, being able to do that in front of a stadium and kind of break down and go through whatever she was going through inside and then, you know, still be able to win the match and come out on the other side, I mean, that takes guts.

Ashe is really overwhelming, so not only are you playing out there, but you're trying to win, and then you feel like you're failing, and then you're crying, and then you still win. That's even harder than not showing any emotion at all.

So I think, like she said, it showed that she was human. I think sometimes fans don't understand that, yeah, I mean, tennis isn't life or death, but when you're out there and you're doing something that you've worked your whole life for and you feel like something is not working, and obviously for her she hit a point where she couldn't hold it in anymore, and it probably helped her that she cried and got it out of her system. It's not always healthy to keep everything in.

Clearly she was struggling, and that's what she needed to do in that moment to overcome it, and she did. So it's not easy having to go out there with a lot of pressure, with her trying to change things on her serve, with having to step out there and feel like you're failing in front of an entire stadium. That's really tough.

I don't think outsiders really understand how complicated that is and how difficult it is and how you have to be pretty fearless to go out there and do that. That's something why I've always loved our sport because I feel like for us we're willing to go out there and fail in front of everybody, and it's just us. It's not like you have other teammates that maybe dropped the ball or missed a pass or there's someone else you can put the blame on or the coach or something like that. No, it's just you out there, and that's really difficult and something that makes our sport really, really tough.

I think she had to do what she had to do, and I think it was probably good that she let it out. Some of us say on tour, when we see a girl crying, they're probably going to win (laughing). Some people are, like, oh, she's crying, she's breaking down. That's actually worse. She's probably going to play great now.

Q. I'm working on a story about how different players have a definition of what or what isn't an exhibition. I'm curious for you what your sort of criteria you work with.

JESSICA PEGULA: Where did we land on that? I think Jack said it was -- no, it wasn't an exhibition? That's what I was thinking about.

Q. I think Jack was trying to say people are saying it was an exhibition, and then he was trying to say it wasn't.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I think he was, but then he just kept saying, Exhibition, exhibition. I was, like, Maybe stop saying "exhibition." That was funny.

Q. Mixed you don't think is one. People debate Laver Cup. There's different events.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, you asked, because then you said, What describes an exhibition? I was like, Well, there are no points, so I'm not really sure what -- I still don't really have an answer.

I guess we've just established the tour, so anything else that's not on tour, we just consider an exhibition? But I don't know.

At the same time those guys really want to win Laver Cup and stuff when they go and play. There's a lot of money and pride on the line, and you're playing on a team. So I'm not really sure.

To me an exhibition is when it's, like, you're not playing. It's like a hit and giggle. You're just playing for fun points, and you're trying to get the crowd into it. Like, that's an exhibition.

Q. (Off mic.)

JESSICA PEGULA: That's an exhibition. We're playing, but we're playing to entertain. Like, you're not playing for, like, a lot of money and really putting yourself on the line, which fans love that. They love when you just have fun points and you're just going out there and you're entertaining.

I don't know if they know the difference, but I'm not really sure. To me Laver Cup doesn't really seem that much like an exhibition. I mean, those guys go pretty hard, so I don't know. To be continued.

Q. I wanted to follow up about what you were just saying in the question before the exhibition question. NFL players, pro basketball players, hockey players are really tough, but tennis is sort of its own field, its own niche there. Young players around the entire world who want to break through. We'll say only 100, 125 players really make a living. Is it especially hard for women? Are top pros somehow taken for granted? Can you talk about that whole area, if you would.

JESSICA PEGULA: What do you mean? I'm not sure.

Q. Are the top athletes in women's tennis, how incredible is it that they break through, and you had such a long struggle yourself, and are they taken for granted as athletes and performers in some way? This is in the context of --

JESSICA PEGULA: I don't really understand the "taken for granted" part, but I guess I could just speak on, yeah, the fact that this sport is really hard, and it's really grueling. There's only so many people that really truly, I guess, make it.

Again, everyone's own perception of making it is different. Maybe some people just want to be top 100. Maybe they had no idea that they would even move on from college tennis. Maybe they want to be No. 1, and everything else seems like a failure. I don't know what -- everyone's perception of success is really different.

I think, yeah, to make it, let's say, be top 20, let's say, it's really difficult, and I think you go through stretches that are really hard, and it can be really lonely. Like you said, it's an international sport.

There's millions of people playing tennis, and you're trying to become one of the best top 20 in the world, considering everyone that plays and that's trying to play, that's really difficult, and it's really hard.

Yeah, I think it's one of the toughest sports just when you combine not just the physicality of it, but the schedule, the loneliness, the mental side, how tough it is to go out there and compete week in and week out by yourself. Especially when you're just coming up. I mean, you're not in nice places.

You're in really tough places that are really hard to win at. You're fighting with umpires. You're probably getting cheated. You probably have no money. You're making no money. Getting one point.

It's a grind. It's truly a grind. I think on that aspect, tennis to me is, I think it's the toughest in that kind of world. Like, the actual part of making it is really, really difficult.