Jessica Pegula's return to form during the North American hardcourt season was incredible, and the world No. 3 discussed how she achieved it.
Pegula looked for a fresh start when she took the surprising decision to split with her longtime coach, David Witt, in February, who played a key role in the 30-year-old becoming a consistent Top 10 player.
Unfortunately, injuries prevented her from doing that during the first half of the season. Due to physical issues, she missed the entire Middle East swing in February before being below her best in Indian Wells and Miami.
Pegula's frustrating start to the season continued when another injury led to her missing the entire European clay court season. At that stage, it seemed like 2024 was going to be a year to forget.
Although she lost in the second round of Wimbledon, Pegula still found form during the grass court season by winning the Berlin Open. She saved five championship points during one of the best finals of the season against Anna Kalinskaya.
The American No. 1's level became outstanding during the North American hardcourt season. Pegula retained her title at the Canadian Open before finishing as the runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka in Cincinnati.
That was followed by Pegula reaching her first Grand Slam final at the US Open. After a high-quality final, she fell again to Sabalenka, but Pegula still tried to find the positives from a breakthrough tournament.
Although Pegula said qualifying for the WTA Finals was not on her radar at the start of the grass-court season, she still believed it was possible. The US Open runner-up is currently in a great position to qualify for the event in Riyadh.
"I know it was always possible, you can get hot, but that wasn’t necessarily on my radar. Obviously, there were a lot of doubts. But I trusted that the work I was doing and the mentality would come back."
"I think at the end of the day, I decided to try and trust the process, trust the training. Just because I missed half the year doesn’t mean I forgot how to play at a top level. There’s so many things I’m really proud of."
Pegula's injury issues have had one positive impact: she feels fresher than usual at this late stage of the season, which has not always been the case for the 30-year-old.
"I’m not as worn out as I have been in the past,” Pegula said. “I’m a little bit fresher than other people. I’m happy that it worked out. I can’t say I planned it that way.”
Something that gave Pegula encouragement during her time on the sidelines was how strongly she has come back from injuries in the past, returning a better player after each physical setback.
"I believed coming back from injury, I’ve always come back better every time I’ve gotten hurt,” Pegula said. “Every time I’ve been out, I’ve come back and done better, been ranked higher than I was before. I think leaning on that past experience helped me.”
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