By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday September 2, 2025
New York — Jessica Pegula has rediscovered her footing at just the right time. After a rocky summer that left her questioning her process and results, the No.4 seed is back in stride at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, powering into the semifinals at the US Open for the second consecutive year.
The turnaround comes after a first-round exit at Wimbledon that left her reeling. Pegula had arrived in London brimming with confidence after winning the title at Bad Homburg, only to crash out of the Championships while watching Iga Swiatek, whom she’d just defeated in the final, go on to lift the trophy.
“Wimbledon wasn’t great,” Pegula admitted. “I was a little frustrated after Wimbledon because obviously I won Bad Homburg and I was playing so well, and then of course you see Iga go on to win Wimbledon. I felt like I was playing good tennis, and it just did not translate at all for that first round.”
The loss to Elisabetta Cocciareto at Wimbledon lingered, and the frustration carried over to the summer hard courts, where Pegula dropped three of five matches before New York. Caught in a cycle of overthinking and tinkering — even testing out new strings — she found herself drifting further from the simplicity that has long powered her consistency.
“So it was kind of back to the drawing board,” Pegula told reporters. “I got to spend a few weeks at home, but I think for the first few weeks I was kind of maybe overthinking a few things that I felt like I needed to do better on the hard courts instead of just going back to how I know I can win a lot of matches. Then I lost a few tough matches. There were just a lot of things. I was trying a different string. I was doing too much.”
The key to her turnaround in New York, Pegula explained, was stepping back and getting back to basics.
“I think our goal was just to get back on track and simplify things. So there was a lot of things that have happened since Wimbledon, I guess, is my point,” she said. “There was a lot of ups and downs, a lot of interesting practices, honestly even leading up to the week before here. So the goal was to simplify things and to get me back playing my game, and I feel like we’ve been able to do that. So I’m really happy that the challenge was met, I guess.”
After powering past two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-3 6-3 on Tuesday, Pegula finds herself back in familiar territory, into a major semifinal once again.
“I mean, to even make the second week to then quarters, semis, is a huge accomplishment,” she said. “This was my biggest accomplishment last year was just getting past the quarterfinals. Now I can say I’ve done it twice.”
Next up is a firm challenge: a rematch with World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Pegula in last year’s US Open final. This time, the American says she’ll step onto the court with a different mindset.
“I think it would be cool to be able to get revenge, obviously,” she said. “I think this year I’ve come back with a different perspective, knowing that I wasn’t playing well, to really enjoy the fact that, like, this is pretty cool and that I’ve had really good results here, and I have so much support. So that’s been really nice.
“I think going into it if I was playing Aryna again, I would probably have that mentality instead of maybe being so focused on, like, what I have to do so strongly instead of competing and, like, enjoying the crowd a little bit more and enjoying the fact that I’m in this position again to possibly be in another final and I’m playing the best player in the world. I think there’s a lot other perspectives that I would take into it this time.”
