Jessica Pegula ‘kind of annoyed’ after losing US Open final
Jessica Pegula admits it will take her a while to fully appreciate what she achieved at the 2024 US Open as she admitted she saw her glass as half empty after her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka.
The American enjoyed a breakthrough fortnight at Flushing Meadows as, after six quarter-final appearances at a Grand Slam, she finally reached a semi-final as she upset world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the last eight.
The 30-year-old then went one better as she made it to the final of her home major with a three-set win over Karolina Muchova. However, it wasn’t to be in the US Open showpiece match as Pegula lost in straight sets against Sabalenka.
Despite her incredible run in New York, Pegula was a little down after the defeat.
“I’m just annoyed I lost right now and everyone is like, ‘Congrats, amazing tournament.’ I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever,'” she joked.
“[But] I am sure once I decompress I will be a little bit more appreciative and see all of that at some point… I should probably do that at some point, but it has been a couple of crazy days so hopefully I will get some time after this to kind of just relax and just be able to look back at what I have been able to do the last month.”
Pegula added: “I think for sure I will take a lot of confidence from this in maybe like an hour or two because like I said, I’m kind of annoyed. Not even annoyed about losing the tournament.
” I think it’s more I just wanted to win the match. Now there are things that are just in my head that I feel I should have done better and stuff like that.”
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The American won the Canadian Open in the build-up to the US Open to take her WTA 1000 trophy tally to three while she has also finished runner-up at the WTA Finals.
She hopes eventually she will be able to take the final step up to become a Grand Slam champion.
“I think I’ve taken confidence from winning a 250, from winning a 1000 from being able to win another 1000, multiple ones now. Then to be able to be a Grand Slam finalist, I think that was kind of the last thing for me,” Pegula said.
“I made a lot of quarter-finals but can I make a semi? Can I be a contender to actually win a Grand Slam?
“Looking back, I’ve lost again to a really good player. I lost to girls that pretty much won the tournament every time. I know my level was right there.
“I think maybe I handled the moment a little bit better this year with just having maybe a different perspective of I had a rough start to the year and I didn’t really expect to be doing this well in the hard court swing and I was able to kind of flip that script. When I came here it was almost less pressure.”
