J. PEGULA/K. Rakhimova
6-4, 6-0
THE MODERATOR: Jess, well played today. Another rain delay. How were you able to get through these matches?
JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I've had a lot of experience the past week with these rain delays. Three different warmups today was definitely not easy, but to be expected.
I feel like this time of year there's always kind of hot summer weather, which usually means a lot of rain.
So just tried to use my experience in those situations the best I could today.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. I feel like, with rain delays, I guess where you were at in the match, 4-Love in the second set, I feel that can be tricky to close out those final two games. How was that?
JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, even at like 3-0 it was so dark, I had a feeling that it was coming, and so I was definitely thinking about it.
I just wanted to stay super focused to try and build a lead as much as I could, to be honest.
Then, having the stop, it was 4-0, 40-15 on my serve, so at least I felt like in a comfortable and good spot to come back to after a rain delay.
So it's always hard because you kind of start rushing sometimes. Sometimes that can be helpful because you stay really focused. Sometimes you can kind of start maybe overplaying and be worried too much about the weather, trying to get off court.
But, yeah, it was a tough rain delay. But tougher, honestly, from her perspective. So I think that's what I was just trying to tell myself.
Q. I spoke with some other American players like Iva Jovic and Taylor Townsend who were supposed to play the DC Open, but they decided not to because they said they needed more recovery time. You said you weren't going to play DC and then you did. Can you talk about why you ultimately decided to play that tournament, and do you feel like you would be able to do DC, like, obviously went deep there, go deep here, and then also make a good run in Cincinnati, as far as like, you know...
JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, we'll find out, I guess. But to be totally honest, I mean, the reason I played DC was because I was only at three of my six mandatories for the 500s.
I just felt like I like that tournament, I've had good results there, and I felt like my best chance to put another 500 on the calendar, I would much rather travel in the U.S. than maybe try to make it up somewhere else. So that was really the initial reason.
Yeah, I would have loved to have some more time at home, but it just didn't work out that way.
At the same time, I went in I think with the mindset that, kind of low expectations and not trying to expect too much of myself to do well in that tournament.
I think I was pretty honest there. I didn't have the most amazing prep. But I think sometimes those weeks are really good because you realize that you don't really need sometimes a ton of practice and a ton of work to go in and still have good results.
I feel like I've had to learn over my career that sometimes less is more, and that I know how to play tennis, and I know my game, and I know what I have to do well.
Sometimes, you know, things don't work out the way you want it to. You don't have perfect prep, you don't have a perfect lead-up, and you have to learn that you can still trust yourself and your game to go out there.
So I kind of used it as a week like that, where I was like, Okay, I need to get into these matches and do well and see where it goes. It just kind of so happened that I ended up making the final and had a quick turnaround here.
We'll see. Obviously these weeks are, they get really long. But I'm not playing the week before the US Open, so I feel like that's always my reset week, for sure.
Q. In circumstances like today when you had such a commanding lead and you had to go back inside, the two women, do you guys just ignore each other over there, or not make eye contact, especially because you were so far in front?
JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, no, we both kind of just went back into the locker room separately. She's talking to her coach, I'm talking to mine. I didn't really see her until we were starting to warm up again.
Sometimes it's kind of where the layout in the locker room is. Sometimes you're like right next to your opponent, sometimes you're not. I actually didn't really see her much during the rain delay.
But, yeah, it's just kind of one of those things where it depends on kind of where you're set up if you run into them more often than not.
Q. I wanted to ask you, given your family's legacy in sports, do you think you were almost preordained to be an athlete yourself? Why did you choose tennis when you could have been an equestrian or whatever.
JESSICA PEGULA: Well, I feel like a lot of the stuff as far as my family didn't really happen until I was like 17 or 18 years old.
So, to me, my parents, they always felt like that I was, that it kind of led them into sports because I was the athlete in the family.
My older sister also was like a Division I college tennis player, so that's why I got into tennis.
I remember watching her play when she was in high school and juniors and in college, and I just started because I would take lessons after school because that's kind of what she did.
I don't really know why she got into tennis, because at the time we were up north in Pennsylvania, and it's not like there's a ton of tennis there.
So I'm not really sure about that. But it definitely, that's just kind of how I started.
I think my parents always joked that having these teams was like, I don't know, I forget how many players are on a team, but it's like 50 of me, and they said that's way harder to manage than just me. So I think I kind of prepped and maybe led them into that space more than the opposite.
Q. I wanted to follow-up on the WTA 500, I guess, the mandatory type of zero-pointer thing. Curious, how do players feel about that rule? Obviously, I feel like it is effective because it prompted you to play DC. But how do players feel about that rule. And then, I guess, is there talks about wanting to maybe change the rule, or do you feel like it's ultimately for the greater good of promoting the 500s?
JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I mean, it's a loaded question. I sit on the Tour Architecture Council, where we're kind of talking about how do we possibly maybe lower mandatories.
I think, for the most part, girls play. Like, we want to play and compete. So I think sometimes the tournaments want incentives for players to play, like having to play a mandatory event. But at the same time I think girls will, honestly, always play. Like, we are here to compete and play and stuff like that.
I think what's also changed is just having these two-week events. Now, all of a sudden, it's a little bit harder when you do well at a two-week event, not just a slam, but all these other events that become so much longer, to now have to play all these 500s.
I think that when the tour kind of changed, we upgraded a lot of 500s as well. So I think it's just, I think looking at what we did, and just going back and tweaking it where maybe players don't feel so much pressure that they have to play.
I think sometimes that's where players are at. And then that leads to burnout and injury and stuff like that. So we're looking at it more from like a player kind of health aspect.
Because, obviously I'm not the only one. Actually, I don't really think I complain, but a lot of players have complained on the men and women's side about the length of the calendar and how it's just gotten really, really long.
So I'm on that council and hopefully we can come up with something that alleviates some of the stress that players feel with having to play.
I think that number just maybe was a little too much for players, as far as having to play six. But, yeah, I think it's a work in progress.
Q. You've been on a roll, despite what happened last week. I think this was your 40th match win in the season, ranked No. 3 in the world. That's pretty awesome. Just wondering, with Keys finally doing, having a breakthrough at the Australian Open, she's had a terrible day though, do you feel extra pressure on yourself to make that next step as somebody that should have a grand slam title?
JESSICA PEGULA: I think it's definitely an outlying achievement that I still haven't gotten yet.
But at the same time, I mean, I think I don't hold too much to it. As far as, like, if I never win a slam, like, I'm still going to have great life, and it's not something that's kind of driving me insane, I guess I could say.
But is it something that is a goal and that I really want to achieve, and do I really want to win the US Open this year, like a hundred percent.
I think I've gotten better as a player over the last couple years, and I'm putting myself in good positions, but it's really hard to win a Grand Slam.
I think I've also kind of shifted my perspective over the last few years where maybe I was starting to feel that pressure to, you know, all the amazing results and achievements that I've had. I always go back to the one time someone told me, like, you know, they thought it's harder what I've been able to do, as far as being so consistent than being hot and winning a Grand Slam for two weeks.
So when they kind of said that to me I'm like, Oh, that's actually like a really nice way to kind of change my perspective of how I was starting to think of it.
Like still, what I think I'm doing is pretty great, even though it's not like the big, gold, shiny trophy at the end of the day.
Yeah, I mean, that's still obviously a big goal that I want to achieve. But I wouldn't say I'm living and dying on that, because I just don't feel like that's healthy, and I don't feel like that's how you should think. I think that can kind of spiral and turn into something negative. I think Madison's even kind of talked about that how she kind of just let that whole thing go and it came to her.
So I think if it happens, it happens. It's great, it's amazing. But I know a lot of people, and they win a slam and it's like, you're right back the next week, like, battling for the next tournament and it's kind of in the past.
The sad part about our sport is everything moves very quickly, and then it's, Are you going to win the next tournament? Are you going to win the next slam? And it kind of keeps going.
So I think I just try to keep my perspective just very, it is what it is. I enjoy competing and playing and trying to get better.
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