Can Jessica Pegula win the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals?

Less than an hour after losing the US Open final in September, Jessica Pegula entered the press conference with a stoic expression on her face. She quickly sat down in her seat, straightened her ponytail, and sighed before expressing her first thoughts about the match.

She had the odds against her Arina Sabalenko but in the end the score fell 7-5, 7-5, and it was impossible to predict how disappointed Pegula would be when she had to answer questions about it.

But there were no tears from Pegula that day, at least not publicly. She admitted she was disappointed at not being able to secure a decider and was “disappointed” at the loss, but her trademark unflappable nature and positive attitude quickly returned. She knew she would ultimately consider her runner-up finish in New York a victory.

“If I can’t gain confidence in that, then something is wrong,” Pegula said. “I think I gained confidence by winning the 250, winning the 1000, winning another 1000. Now that’s a few. Then the opportunity to be a Grand Slam finalist, I think, was kind of the last thing. for me I made a lot of quarter finals (I did). “But can I reach the semi-finals, can I really qualify to win a Grand Slam?”

“Looking back, I lost again to a really good player. I lost to the girls who almost won the tournament every time. I know my level was up to par.”

Now, some seven weeks later, after a rollercoaster season filled with career triumphs but also lengthy absences, sixth-ranked Pegula will have the chance to harness her growing self-belief and win the biggest title of her WTA career. Final. She was outside the top 20 at the start of the summer but appears to have qualified for the prestigious tournament for the third year in a row due to her dominance on the hard court.

“She has big goals,” Pegula’s coach Mark Knowles told ESPN this week. “Besides winning Grand Slams, the second most important goal for all these (elite) players is to get into the championship at the end of the year. It’s confirmation that you’ve had a great season and it’s just the eight best players in the world and it’s really tough. She’s excited about it and looking forward to facing the best of the best.”

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Shortly before her 30th birthday in February, Pegula realized she needed to make a change.

After reaching three straight quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Pegula was upset in the second round of the year’s first major. The disappointing result and the approaching anniversary of her birthday made her think about her future career and what she wants to achieve.

Forced to miss the Middle East hard court game with a neck injury, Pegula decided to part ways with her longtime coach David Witt while away from competition. They began working together in 2019, and Witt has been by her side through virtually every career accomplishment, seeing her grow from a non-top 100 player to a top-five stalwart, six-time major quarterfinalist, and perennial contender. victory. .

“David and I obviously had a lot of success and what we were able to achieve together was just amazing, but I think I started with him when I was maybe 25 and then when I turned 30 this year, I think I’m just stuck. a completely different place—a different ranking, a different place personally and career-wise,” Pegula said in Indian Wells in March. “I just felt like I needed to take a chance. I’m 30—not that 30 is the end—and I think I just didn’t want to look back and think, “Maybe I should have tried someone.” or tried something else.”

Enter “Signs,” as Pegula calls them.

Pegula then turned to Knowles, a former top doubles player and three-time Grand Slam champion. Knowles has previously coached such male players as Mardy Fish, Milos Raonic And Jack Sock but was busy with his duties as a television commentator and had no intention of returning to his travels around the world. But he had met Pegula when she had previously played in his charity tournament and couldn’t help but be intrigued. After some discussion in March, Knowles agreed to join the team along with his longtime friend Mark Merklein, with whom he had represented the Bahamas in several Olympic Games and Davis Cup competitions.

Merklein lives just 15 minutes from Pegula in her home base of Boca Raton, Florida, so he’ll be able to train with her regularly even when she’s not on the road, and both coaches will take turns with her at tournaments. It seemed like an ideal arrangement for all parties, but the trio soon hit their first hurdle when Pegula suffered a rib injury at the Billie Jean King Cup in April. She was sidelined for the duration of the European clay season. Knowles called it a “difficult time,” but as frustrating as it was for Pegula, she was also grateful for the rare time away from traveling.

“She loves simple things at home, like making coffee and hanging out with her dogs,” Pegula’s sister Kelly told ESPN before the US Open final last month. “We have both loved video games since we were kids, and when she was injured we played Call of Duty a staggering amount of times. She never had any free time during the season because she is very introverted, but we literally played every day. “

When she wasn’t playing with Kelly, Pegula was working hard to get back into the grass season. She made it – she considered bringing her PS5 with her abroad to continue playing COD, but ultimately decided against it. She won her first title on grass at the German Open in just her second tournament since her return.

“Prior to this season, she hadn’t had to deal with injuries for several years, and she said she forgot how much she loved the game until she was unable to play,” Knowles said. “And I think it showed. She came back with renewed vigor and immediately started playing very well.”

Pegula lost in the second round at Wimbledon and then in the same round at the Paris Olympics a few weeks later, but Knowles and the team felt her level was strong despite the results. Everyone had high hopes for the summer hard court season.

Pegula lived up to those expectations—and more.

Just days after returning from Paris, Pegula began her title defense at the 1000-level Canadian Open. Holding off a host of fierce opponents, Pegula won the tournament with a three-set victory over Amanda Anisimova in the final. The following week, she reached the finals of the Cincinnati Open, another 1000-level tournament, with impressive wins over players such as Karolina Muchova And Paula Badosa. In the final she lost to Sabalenka with a score of 6-3, 7-5.

And while many of New York’s top players struggled and blamed a grueling summer schedule, Pegula recorded the best performance of her career. She cited her involuntary breaks from touring as one of the reasons she remained “fresher than probably everyone else.”

“Weirdly, looking back, it was almost good,” she added.

Kelly insisted Pegula’s previous record of 0-6 in the quarterfinals was not something that actively haunted her sister. “I didn’t even realize how many quarters she made until everyone else started talking about it,” she said. But some speculated whether Pegula would ever get over the hump. And to do it at the US Open, she will have to defeat the then world No. 1 and five-time major champion. Iga Swiatek. Somehow she made it easy, winning 6-2, 6-4.

“I’m so glad you guys can’t ask me about reaching the semi-finals (anymore),” Pegula joked to reporters after the match.

Knowles noted Pegula’s ability to block out outside noise and focus on her game to achieve a remarkable win.

“We really looked at this match in isolation, which is hard to do as an athlete,” Knowles said. “She was certainly aware of the situation and who she was playing against, but we focused on how well she played (entered the game) and what she could do to win that match. I think the lessons she learned from that quarterfinal win were, ‘Hey, just execute the game plan and play to the best of your ability and whatever happens, happens.’

Pegula used this lesson the next day in the semi-final against Muchova. After losing the first set 6–1 in just 30 minutes and trailing 2–0 early in the second set, Pegula refused to give up. She fought her way back into the match and won 12 of the last 16 games of the match to claim a comeback victory. Less than 48 hours later, she almost managed to do the same against Sabalenka in the final. At 3-0 in the second set, Pegula reeled off five games in a row and a deciding set looked all but certain before Sabalenka found another gear.

Pegula won three matches in two tournaments after the US Open final and spent two weeks at home before heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the WTA Finals. The tournament begins on Saturday with eight players divided into two groups and players face everyone in their group’s round robin to determine who advances to the semi-finals. Pegula is in the orange group with the top three champions at Christmastide, Coco Gauff And Barbora Krejcikova.

Although she was a finalist in 2023, even reaching the semi-finals will be a challenge this year. But Knowles believes Pegula’s latest performance in New York will prove invaluable both inside and outside the tournament.

“I think she always believed she could reach a Grand Slam final, but now it’s been confirmed and her mindset has changed to ‘I’m coming to win this competition’ before every tournament she plays,” she said. Knowles. . “She’s one of the strongest athletes I’ve ever been around. I think a lot of people don’t realize it, but you can see it when she saves match points, she just has this innate stubborn determination.

“She just wants to keep improving, keep tinkering, keep learning. She just has an interest, a desire to be great. We have to remove her from the training court, we have to take away the balls, take away the racket. people think Kobe Bryant never wants to leave the gym. That’s a unique quality, and like Kobe and other great athletes, she’s just special.”