American star Jessica Pegula, the top seed at the ATX Open, had much to celebrate here in Austin – her birthday, where she turned 31 yesterday, and being the top seed at this year’s ATX Open. She believes however her chronological age depends on the context – and the company.
In Doha earlier this year, she played a doubles match with Ashlyn Krueger (age 20) as her partner against Mirra Andreeva (age 17) and Diana Shnaider (age 20), the second seed at the ATX Open. As Pegula recalled in an interview on Sunday: “At some point in the match, I realized that I was 10 years older than everybody on the court and I was like, ‘Ah, OK. I feel old officially.’ ”
But most of the time, Pegula said she doesn’t feel that old. “I feel like I’m still 25,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been stuck at 25, 26 for a while.” One reason is Pegula was plagued by injuries early in her career.
“I feel like the first couple years of my early 20s weren’t really like real years on tour because they weren’t,” she said. “I never really got my momentum.” She said her “healthy years” didn’t materialize until she was about 24.
So not that much wear and tear on her tires?
“Yeah, exactly,” she said with a laugh. “People think I do, and I’m like, no. It’s actually like reverse psychology — I’m actually younger than everybody!” In terms of her tennis game, playing on this continent certainly puts a spring in her step.
“I love playing in the U.S.,” she said. “It’s always the most fun for me.” She especially enjoys “this little mini swing” in the spring and then the calendar before the U.S. Open. She called these events “my favorite times and places.”
Well, amend that. She won the hardcourt events in Toronto last year and in Montreal the year before.
“So I love playing in North America,” she corrected. “I think I just love being home or what feels like home to me. We travel so much out of the year. It’s lucky for us Americans that we get to come back and play some really big, nice events.”
Like the U.S. Open, where she reached her first slam final last year.
“I also think growing up playing on the hard courts, all the Americans tend to have really good results,” she said humbly. “I love being home and that’s hard to do when you’re playing so much out of the year. So I try to make the most of it.”
And this year that means her very first trip to Austin.
“Super weird,” she said about not visiting here earlier. “I don’t know why.
I’ve just have never been here. I was really excited to come because there’s not many places that are new on the [tennis] calendar. And this was one of them. So super happy to be here, explore the city a little bit.”
Thirty-plus or not, Pegula is still trying to improve her game.
“I think you have to,” she said. “It’s how you stay motivated. You keep challenging yourself to learn how to get better every single day. Whether it’s small things with your game — with your movement, physicality, whatever it is.
“I’ve always loved having a lot of short-term goals, and I think that keeps you motivated, keeps you focused.
I think it takes pressure off a little bit, not so much result-orientated, which obviously you want to win. You want that result. But if you hyper-fixate on that, I think it can be kind of a bad thing.”
Going into the ATX Open, Pegula is ranked No. 4 and the highest seed in the tournament. Despite the seeding implication in tournaments, Pegula didn’t seem too concerned about where she’s positioned in the draw.
“You don’t fixate on those things,” she said. “I’ve been top 10 for the last two, three years now and to be honest, I think once that was such a big goal of mine and then top 5. I got there but then once you get there, I kind of didn’t care anymore.
“And I think in order to be 1 or 2, which is a big jump, you have to winning slams. I feel like once you get to that point, you’re going to have to be winning a lot of big tournaments. I think you don’t focus as much on the number because if you’re doing well on those tournaments, you’ll get there and vice versa. It kind of works together.”
