ROLAND GARROS

May 22, 2026

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Jess just wanted to say a few words. Jess?

JESSICA PEGULA: I just heard about the passing of Howard Fendrich from the AP and wanted to send my condolences to him and his family and his friends and everything. I'm glad that he was back home, but he's someone that I always looked forward to talking to in press, and sometimes there is few people that I feel like that. I miss seeing Howard here and just sending my prayers to his family.

THE MODERATOR: Jess, welcome back to Paris. Just talk about your preparations and how things are going so far.

JESSICA PEGULA: So far, so good. Nice to see some sunny weather here in Paris. It was very, very cold when I first got here, so that's been really nice, but excited to get going. I feel like this week has really kind of flown by with practice, and we're already almost underway. Yeah, excited.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Good to see you here. I know there has been a lot of talk obviously about with the position that you guys have today in terms of relationships of the tournament and the future of prize money. A lot of the focus and a lot of the things people are saying is that it's not just about the top players, it's about the players lower down. About on the top players in a world where quarterbacks are getting $60 million and guys in the NBA are getting 50 million a year, should the top players also be getting bigger prize money, as well?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think that the prize money in general, yeah, as it keeps growing, I think top players who are winning and selling tickets of course should be rewarded for bringing in those fan bases, as well. But like you said, we're more worried about the ecosystem of the sport as a whole, not seeing it be so top heavy, like US Open raised it last year, which was great, but it was all at the very top, which is, again, not really what we're looking for when we're talking about the stuff that we have been doing with the slams and why we are here today and only doing the 15-minute thing.

I mean, I think of course the top earners and performers of our sport should be, yeah, making what they have earned, for sure. But again, you know, the whole point is to help the ecosystem in the sport, and that's the lower-ranked players and giving them a chance to have a good career, to have chances to break through, and to see more of those stories happen.

Q. Nice words about Howard. This is a day where a lot of players are getting asked about this and you have been deeply involved in player affairs for a long time. How has it been getting people on the same page, getting the messaging clear across all these players on both tours? What has the coordination effort been like and how successful do you think it has been so far that people will be on message the way you hope they will be?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think in tennis that's the hardest thing is getting everybody on the same page. As far as what's happened today, I think it's been really easy to coordinate through everybody.

I mean, just tell players they don't have to do as much media, and I think you can get them on the same page pretty fast. But of course it's always difficult, we're all playing at different times, practicing at different times, the schedule, again, we're each on our own individual schedule, which tends to not be at the same time.

So I think, yeah, it's been fairly easy, like I said, with getting people to do, players to do less media. That one caught on pretty quickly. Yeah, not a lot of trouble with that (smiling).

Q. Obviously there was talk of boycotts in Rome and everything, but in general, how willing do you think players would be to do things that make them uncomfortable, sacrifices in a way to achieve these aims? For example, with the press conferences, I guess you could have chosen not to do them at all, and almost dare Roland Garros to fine you. So how comfortable do you feel players will be doing things like that?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think every player's come for the level is a bit different, so you have to kind of bridge the gap and find that balance what have what everyone is willing to do.

I think seeing the top players speak out, especially in Rome, I think that more other players kind of will follow in line with what other top players are doing, I think that's why it was so important for us to get the top players all on the same page. I think most of us are, but again, scheduling, conversations, it's difficult to align everybody with all of our schedules.

So I think in that turn of seeing a lot of tennis players, top players come together, I think the other players, it's easier for them to follow, because you feel like, Okay, we are all part of this together. It's a little bit different when you have an outlier of one person, and, you know, you just have another person following you, it's kind of like, you know, people don't want to necessarily put themselves out there for that, but again, when you saw with Aryna and Jannik kind of stepping out and being leaders to that, and kind of saying what needs to be said, all of a sudden you kind of saw the collective unity very quickly. I think that was really great.

Like I said, everyone has a different comfort level. I have tried to do my best with talking to a lot of the top players, just to see what that is. Some people, you don't want to force them to do anything, but I think you just want to educate them, talk to them, talk about what's going on, and just see where they fall and see if you can come up with something where you can all kind of meet in the middle, I guess, I would say.

That's kind of what happened with today.

Q. How did this particular idea come about? Whose suggestion was it? Do you have in your mind what the natural step next from this would be?

JESSICA PEGULA: Well, I mean, I think we are always thinking of ideas. Obviously Aryna said boycott. That was more of an extreme kind of stance. Then, yeah, the people are -- the players, we have kind of come up with different ways of what we could all do that's feasible, that's easy to do before a slam, you know, that, type of stuff.

What was your second question?

Q. How this particular idea came about, and whose idea was it?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I think it just came amongst, you know, Larry Scott, the guy we have been working with, and kind of just finding a middle ground of what we can do together that's feasible, like I said, the week before the slam that's capable.

You know, if you try to talk about more extreme circumstances and then all of a sudden people aren't on board, you can't get anything to happen. So, again, it's like finding that meet in the middle of things that are possible and doing all in a busy week before a slam.

Q. In terms of just the tournament, the draws, obviously you're an analyst now because you're a podcaster, how do you see kind of the men's draw obviously pretty, everybody is kind of wondering, how do you stop one person, given the momentum Jannik has, and then what seems like one of the more open Roland Garroses we have seen on the women's side with you in the conversation as well. How do you break these things down? Secondly, from the Jannik side, what is it like to be in a draw where, because we maybe had this in the past with Iga, where it does feel like there is a crew that's trying to stop what seems like an inevitable.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, the Jannik problem, I don't have an answer for that. I wish (smiling). I don't think anybody does. That's a tough one. I think I myself am just stumped by just the level he's been able to put on.

Now with Carlos not playing, you're kind of looking like the inevitable is going to happen. Obviously the thing about this sport is anything can happen, anything is possible. You never know what's going to happen in a match or what's going to unfold and if he's going to stay healthy the entire tournament now going to three out of five. There is a lot of other factors.

Yeah, I'm not sure I have an answer for that, but I think he's obviously the favorite, and he's been playing, you know, the best tennis in the world and just been, yeah, it's hard to put into words, honestly. We have talked about it on the podcast, and we are all kind of like we don't really know what to say. It's just pretty incredible.

It's funny when you see that, we used to say this with Novak, Oh, no one is going to do this again. And well, someone is already starting to do it again. It's crazy how these players come into a draw and things can change.

To the woman's side, yeah, it seems a bit more open just with different results on the clay, you know, with Elena winning Rome, Marta winning Madrid, it seems like there's a lot of favorites that could win in a way. There's a lot of people playing good tennis, myself included, and then obviously Aryna's, I think, record in Grand Slams has been probably the best. You have Elina playing really well, Coco obviously loves to play well here.

There is definitely a lot of, I think, space for someone to win, which makes it I think fun. Maybe less stressful if I was a guy, knowing that I had to somehow take down Jannik, but it's a bit more open, which I think is really exciting for women's tennis because there is a lot of really good players right now that are able to possibly break through and win a title or at least challenge the top players.

Q. Speaking of that same subject, does it feel completely different this year in terms of the openness? Because last year we were here, and Iga was a three-time champion, going to be the first one to win four in a row in a hundred years. How do you feel about her aura, what's happened to it and how that opens up things for all the women in the field?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think those few years with Iga on clay was definitely tough, because she was the best clay court player that we had had, and she was so dominant on it.

I mean, I don't know if she's lost any aura. She's still an amazing Grand Slam champion, multiple Grand Slam champion, has won on all the surfaces and everything, so that's always going to be there. I think, you know, when you play a lot, people are training to kind of figure you out and trying to figure out how to beat you.

I think when you're that good and you're that much higher, like what was happening with Jannik, is that all these girls started looking at how to beat her. So I think the depth probably maybe got a little bit better as well, and she, yeah, maybe just wasn't as confident a few times here and there, a few matches, and that can always sway.

She's so young, and I think there is always going to be ebbs and flows in a career. She's already been a great champion. At the same time, yeah, she's not as dominant as those years, but I don't know if you'd really want to play her here, as well, knowing her experience here.

Q. Just going back to the media action today, it seems like you have obviously been in conversation with the fellow top players, but you have kind of all talked about how you're doing it really for the lower-ranked players. What's the comms like between you and those lower-ranked players, because they today seem a little bit less on message than the top players.

JESSICA PEGULA: I think that the next step would be probably creating, like, a better communication with them. I mean, I still have communication with some, people are moving up and down the rankings all the time. So there is definitely communication there, but what we have really just been focused on is getting more of the top players, because we feel that would kind of make the most noise, so to speak.

Like you said, we are doing this for all, the whole sport. It may seem like we're just asking for more money or why are the top players complaining, but at the same time, like, these people want to hear us talk, so we're trying to basically use our voices, and maybe the more media presence that we get to again see the ecosystem of the sport is going to keep to continue building and growing.

And by that, yeah, we have said the revenue share needs to be hiring, player welfare needs to be higher and that will in return help a lot of lower-ranked players. So I think the next steps would be to build up that communication with them, for sure.

But right now obviously just trying to get us all on the same page and showing that unity on the men's and women's side was our focus.

I'd say the communication is still good with them. I don't think it's not bad or anything.