"All the stress just come right back" - Jessica Pegula on maintaining a positive mindset ahead of the US Open

With the 2024 US Open set to begin in a few days, American tennis star Jessica Pegula has opened up on feeling pressure heading into her home Grand Slam event.

The World No.6 has had an excellent North American hardcourt summer season, where she successfully defended her Canadian Open title. Subsequently, she made it back-to-back finals by reaching the Cincinnati Open final the following week, falling to Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka. 

The 30-year old is one of the favorites to lift the title at Flushing Meadows, which would be her first Grand Slam trophy. However, Pegula revealed her anxiety about competing in New York, despite her recent strong form.

"You go into a Slam, and I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I did so well the last couple weeks – but you want to do it in a Slam even more," said Pegula in an interview with the WTA Insider. “So now you got to start over, and the anxiety and all the stress just comes right back."

Pegula has accumulated a haul of ranking points over the past few months, which has seen her rise to seventh in the race to the WTA Finals. After finishing runner-up at the year-ending event last year, Pegula admitted she felt less pressure following her strong performance on tour this summer.

“I don’t stress about defending points,” she added. “But at least now knowing that I put myself in a good position for the end of the year to do well, to maybe make the Finals.
“I know that I had finals defending from last year, and I think that was the only thing that kind of stressed me out a little bit. I know that I am at least putting myself in a good position to get a chance to defend, which takes a lot of pressure off.”