Surely Jessica Pegula and lawn tennis are not concepts that come to our brain hand in hand, but this may have changed after what happened last week at the WTA 500 in Berlin. With much improved tennis on the green surface and the ambition of someone who missed 80% of the clay tour, this version of the American seems more dangerous even than the one in 2023, where she reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. For now we will see her again this week on the Eastbourne grass, but first it is worth listening to her reflections after winning one of the most important trophies of her career.
A suffered title
“I ended up very tired, but very happy to have achieved this title after such a long Sunday. I really wanted to lift that trophy, I felt very good competing against Coco in the semifinals, showing a great level of tennis, the truth is that I saw myself as having enough level to win the trophy. The final was like a roller coaster, but I knew how to handle the situations and get ahead. “I’m not happy for having put myself in such an adverse position, but I have to be proud because it means a very important victory for me.”
Save 5MP against Kalinskaya
“I think I’m doing a good job, it helped me a lot to be that relaxed. Like any other player, of course I had frustration and anger when I was down 4-1 on the scoreboard, but I used that time on the bench to calm myself down, to remind myself that being angry was not going to do me any good, since it is impossible to play. Good if you’re frustrated with yourself. The first thing I needed was to maintain my serve and then wait for opportunities from the rest. She was also playing at a very high level, until in the third set she started missing some balls that she hadn’t missed before. That was the key, waiting for that moment and being prepared to take advantage of it. “Everything is based on competing, on resisting and putting pressure on your rival until they make a mistake, although there are times when the situation becomes more complicated than desired.”
Week of setbacks
“It has been a very complicated week with delays due to rain, no one likes having their match stopped and having to finish it the next day, but it already happened to me with Siniakova in the quarterfinals and again with Coco in the semifinals. It is really quite hard because you never know how you will wake up the next day, even after playing a good game, the situation of entering a court with the score started is the strangest thing that can happen to you, you run the risk of starting too cold In my case I tried to face it in a relaxed way, thinking that the score was 0-0 and that what happened the previous day no longer mattered. With the 5MP against the same thing, I focused on going point by point, without thinking further afield.”
Your relationship with grass
“It’s not that I had a bad relationship with weed, but it wasn’t great either. I think last year was when I started to feel a little better on this surface, which meant a lot to me after so many years of trying. Now it seems that I have improved, but the truth is that I have never played too many tournaments, at most they are usually 2-3 per year, it is not enough to fall in love with grass. I didn’t even come here as juniors, so it’s taken me a little extra time to acclimatize, find my best game here, know how to hit the ball. It was frustrating because people told me I could be good on weed, but I wasn’t able to feel comfortable on it until last year. These last two years have definitely helped my relationship with grass improve, my run at the last Wimbledon also helped.”
Recovering what was ‘lost’ on the dirt tour
“Obviously, it wasn’t fun having to watch the entire dirt tour on television, seeing how other teammates did well in those tournaments, especially at Roland Garros. It is never fun to miss a Grand Slam, it is not the ideal plan, much less when the start of the season had not been very positive for me either. Yes, he had some decent results, in fact, he felt that he was playing at a good level, so now he will need to make a great grass tour to turn things around a bit. To take something positive, I will not have to make the transition from clay to grass, surely one of the most complicated things on the tennis calendar. I am prepared, I am motivated, I look strong, although I know that I could lose in the first round of Wimbledon and none of this would make sense. This would be something terrible, so I hope this title helps prevent it from happening, I notice that my attitude in recent weeks is much better.”
2024-06-25 06:00:00
#relationship #weed #improved
