Jessica Pegula Hoping Experience Can Be Key To Australian Open Success - UBITENNIS

Jessica Pegula Hoping Experience Can Be Key To Australian Open Success

Jessica Pegula is hoping experience can be key as the American aims for more Grand Slam success at the Australian Open.

By Tony Fairbairn
5 Min Read
(@WeAreTennis - Twitter)

Jessica Pegula is hoping the experience of reaching a US Open final can help her at the Australian Open.

The American played her first tournament of 2025 in Adelaide where she reached the final before losing to Madison Keys in the final.

Starting her pre-tournament press conference Pegula admitted it was good to get a good week in before the first Grand Slam of the season, “Yeah, it was always really nice to get a good first week in my first tournament of 2025,” the American stated in her press conference on Sunday.

“So I think it kind of went pretty much how I wanted it to go in terms of trying to get matches, testing out my body physically after the knee injury in Saudi. Kind of got everything I feel like I needed before coming here. Super excited to kind of just get going tomorrow.”

Pegula mentioned her knee injury which is the reason why she withdrew from Brisbane as her body needed extra time to recover from the second half of the season.

The US Open finalist spoke about her knee injury and what she needed to do to get it sorted before the Australian Open, “I just had a little bit of a knee thing. It started in Asia, and it kind of kept getting worse through Saudi. It was something I kind of honestly thought was going to go away,” Pegula admitted.

“In Saudi I’m not sure if playing on that indoor surface can be tricky sometimes on the body. It really flared up. Luckily I was able to manage it throughout the off-season. To be honest, it wasn’t perfect. I would have loved to try and play Brisbane probably, but it just didn’t work out just as far as getting enough training in before flying over here.

“I wanted to make sure physically I felt, like, ready to go. Just kind of needed that extra week. But I guess it worked out perfect in hindsight. Obviously maybe if I lost early in Adelaide, maybe wouldn’t be saying that, but I think luckily it worked out. Feeling pretty good now.”

Pegula not only enters the Australian Open in great form but the American now has experience of playing seven matches at a Grand Slam tournament.

That’s because the American reached the final of the US Open and tested Aryna Sabalenka in two tight sets.

Speaking about those two weeks in New York Pegula elaborated on what she learned and is now hoping that experience will help her in Melbourne, “I mean, it’s definitely a challenge having to stay locked in for two weeks. It’s not easy. Slams can be stressful. The days are long. There’s a lot of people. You’re constantly, like, way overstimulated,” Pegula stated.

“I think I learned a lot from those two weeks at the US Open, learning how to balance that. Kind of like I said before, I took that challenge of playing well in Toronto and Cincy as well as, again, like a challenge for me to be able to focus for those two weeks and not get too high, not get too low physically, mentally.

“I think that helped going into the US Open. Definitely learned a lot from just that month in general of having to play a lot of matches and trying to win big matches and play your best tennis day in, day out. Hopefully that experience will help me these two weeks and the rest of the year.”

Pegula begins her Australian Open on John Cain Arena against Australian wildcard Maya Joint on Monday evening local time.

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