Jessica Pegula on being a late bloomer and becoming a smarter player
Women’s tennis is often dominated by players who break through at a young age, which makes Jessica Pegula’s late-bloomer story quite fascinating.
The likes of Iga Swiatek, Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka all made headlines and hit the spotlight when they were just teenagers or barely out of their teen years.
Pegula, though, has had a different route to the top as she only really made her breakthrough at the 2021 Australian Open when she reached the quarter-final – just a few weeks shy of her 27th birthday.
Since then her stock has risen considerably as she started that campaign outside the top 60 in the WTA Rankings, but finished the year at a career-high No 18.
Last year she continued her rise as she reached the last eight at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open while she also won the biggest title of her career, the WTA 1000 Guadalajara Open.
The American finished a career-high No 3 in 2022 and is happy to have grown at her own pace.
“Probably Australian Open [quarter-finals] three years ago now was a big turning point,” she explained. “After that, actually I ended up coming [to Doha] and qualifying and making [the semi-finals] 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.”
Pegula is not known for her physicality like Australian Open champion Sabalenka and Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina while she also doesn’t possess the athleticism of the likes of Swiatek and Gauff.
But her continued improvement has seen her develop a game “really bothers” a lot of her rivals.
“I think athletic-wise I’m not like Iga or Coco where I’m sliding all over the court, but I think my hand-eye coordination is also very, very good, so I’m able to time the ball well. … 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,” she said.
“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.
“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. … I think it was just how I grew up playing and striking the ball and naturally just how I like to play.”
