USA’s Jessica Pegula ‘taking confidence’ from best-ever grand slam run despite defeat in US Open final

(CNN) — Jessica Pegula reached new heights in her already distinguished tennis career this week.

A serial winner of other tournaments on the WTA Tour and firmly ensconced in the top 10 of the world rankings, she had never quite been able to replicate that success in grand slams, until this week.

Until Wednesday, Pegula had lost all six of the grand slam quarterfinals she had played in, a streak she broke in impressive fashion by defeating world No. 1 Iga Świątek 6-2 6-4 at the 2024 US Open. Then, she defeated Karolína Muchová 1-6 6-4 6-2 in the semifinal to reach her first grand slam final and, though she lost to Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday evening, the American is “taking confidence” from this run.

“If I can’t take confidence from this, there’s got to be something wrong,” she told reporters in her post-match press conference. “To be able to be a grand slam finalist, that was kind of the last thing for me. I made a lot of quarterfinals but can I make a semi? Can I be a contender to actually win a grand slam.”

Playing Sabalenka, the world No. 2, in the final proved a step too far for Pegula as she succumbed to a 7-5 7-5 defeat. Although she fought back from 3-0 down in the second set and took a 5-3 lead, almost forcing the match to a deciding third set, Sabalenka displayed her quality and sealed the win.

“I’m just annoyed I lost right now,” Pegula said afterward. “Everyone is like, ‘Congrats, amazing tournament.’ I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever,’” she added, half joking.

Despite the defeat, Pegula will regain her career-high world No. 3 ranking after winning 15 of her last 17 matches, losing only to Sabalenka. Such a run comes after a year tarnished by injury in which she hadn’t made it past the second round of a grand slam.

“I think maybe I handled the moment a little bit better this year with just having maybe a different perspective of I had a rough start to the year and I didn’t really expect to be doing this well in the hard court swing and I was able to kind of flip that script,” she said.

Several celebrities, including Lewis Hamilton, Noah Lyles, Tina Fey, Rebel Wilson and Steph Curry, were all pictured in the stands of the Arthur Ashe Stadium enjoying the tennis.

Pegula added that Curry had given her a pep talk before Saturday’s final, though quipped that her husband was particularly excited to meet the NBA superstar.

“Funny story, my husband, his iPhone name is Steph Curry because he loves Steph Curry,” Pegula said. “If you connect to Bluetooth or send him something or AirDrop, it’s ‘Steph Curry’s iPhone’.

“I was like, ‘Please tell me you did not tell him about the iPhone thing.’ … He was like, ‘No, (Curry) loved it’. I was like, ‘Did he? Or did he really think you were kind of crazy?’ I guess he thought it was pretty funny.”

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