MUBADALA CITI DC OPEN

July 30, 2023

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts ahead of the tournament here in D.C.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, really excited to be here. Always love to coming to D.C. The fans have been great. Very excited it's a joint 500 now as well. Yeah just ready to, happy to be in our nation's capital as an American and kick off the hard court swing.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Being in D.C. and you're on the council, what is your sort of state of the union of the WTA right now?

JESSICA PEGULA: What's the state of the -- like how are we doing?

Q. Yeah, just tell the people...

JESSICA PEGULA: We're good. Yeah, there is a lot going on with the circus structure and obviously here becoming a joint 500. You know, I think we are excited that it finally happened and excited for the structure and for us to get to equal prize money at every event. I think that's an important step.

Very appreciative of Mark also investing and knowing it's the right thing to do for the future. So we're good.

Q. On that notion, I wonder what your reaction was when you found out San Jose was kind of morphing with this tournament. Obviously that felt like a big change to the calendar. Along those lines, I wonder what's different for you guys when you're at a combined event. Do you notice there are more players? Is it harder to get more practice time? Do you like it more? Can you take me through that?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, there's pros and cons, like you said. There is more people to accommodate, so sometimes that can be difficult. Sometimes the logistics aren't always perfect the first year, but then at the same time I think we like it. It's more fans. It's more hype around the tournament.

I think it's more fun to play along, you know, not have the best women in the world playing along the best men I think is a great look and I think fans really enjoy that, so I think the atmosphere always seems to be better.

Of course there's always things to work on the first few years, but this tournament has been joined for a while, so just different levels. I feel like we're kind of used to that here. For me personally, I always stayed on the East Coast. I didn't even play Stanford that many times when we had Stanford way back and I never played San Jose so to me my schedule hasn't really changed.

I think it's nice for the girls as well to stay on the East Coast. It's not that easy with the time change and playing week to week, having to go from there to here is always difficult. Sorry, here to Toronto or Montreal. So I think everyone will adjust pretty well.

Q. You had a great run at Wimbledon. I'm sure you're disappointed in how it ended. Do you get any level of satisfaction when the person who beats you ends up winning the tournament or do you just not care at that point?

JESSICA PEGULA: It's like a mixed emotions, right, or like kind of mad or you're kind of like, I guess if I'm going to lose, it sounds better if you lose to the person that wins the tournament, especially a slam, which has happened to me multiple times.

No, I think it also gives you extra motivation, that you're right there and it shows that every little point really counts and that could be the difference between you getting to the next round or possibly winning the tournament and you being out.

So yeah, it's always a weird kind of feeling but I thought again, I think she wholeheartedly deserved it. She played great. It just wasn't meant for me or whoever else was in the tournament that time. She played great, and, yeah it's cool to see her win, especially I know she had some injuries and stuff like that.

I felt like she was a little bit forgotten, but made the French Open final and she was really talented, and it's nice to see her kind of come full circle through all that.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the heat and the humidity, those conditions that you'll find here, you'll see in New York as well. Is there anything extra different you do to prepare before playing in those kinds of conditions?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I live in South Florida so that's kind of what I do (smiling). I just train there. That seems to help. But here it's always gets very hot. It's humid as well. I would say Florida sometimes might feel better just because there is a little bit of a breeze, but it's been very hot there.

So I really think the only way you get used to it is training in and then playing matches in it. I will train in Florida. It will be so hot, so humid, but then you go and play a match in a tournament setting where nerves and adrenaline kick in and it's hard to deal with that when you're not used to it. So I think really the only way is to practice and play tournaments and put yourself in that situation and try and get used to it as best you can.

Q. This might be a silly follow-up, but did your decision to move to Florida have anything to do with that?

JESSICA PEGULA: No. There is just a lot of tennis in South Florida so it goes hand in hand. I guess it's a bonus. That's why players like to train there. Even if they don't live there, they will go do offseason there or something like that, because it does help.

Q. I saw there was some good news out of New York today that your mam attended a training camp.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah.

Q. What is your reaction to knowing that? I don't know if you have had a chance to communicate with her today? It's been quite a journey, and I that's a big step forward.

JESSICA PEGULA: No, it's been amazing. I think it's kind of the next step for us as a family is how much this year she wants to be around all the action and the games and stuff like that. I mean, I know she does, but it's almost like if we're ready for that to happen, but I think it's baby steps and she's there now, which is great. I haven't been able to talk to her yet but my dad, yeah, said she was very happy to be there.

Yeah, we'll see what happens with that but I'm glad she's able to enjoy and kind of go out and enjoy things more where it's been a tough year. It's nice for her and I think nice for everyone around to just see that, you know, she's doing well.

Q. Coco was in here earlier and she said you guys both made the decision just to play singles this week especially with the US Open you will do singles and doubles.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about what you personally will be focusing on this week just playing singles here in D.C.?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I think we kind of made that decision just knowing the weather here, the heat, and doubling up in a short week before Montreal is really tough.

Last year it was struggling to get to Toronto and whatever. We just thought it would be easier this week. But yeah, I think, so for me I'm just, I don't know, I'm just working on everything that I usually work on, trying to get back into match play. I've had a few weeks off.

Just see that I'm working on things in matches and that it's improving. Of course, again, you always want to go in and thinking you're going to win the tournament, but also for me it's important to see that I'm improving on little things and things are getting better and I'm able think my way and work my way through matches and have a really good attitude, especially this week.

Haven't played, you know, any matches in a few weeks. I just want to, you know, it's a long way, not a long way, it's quick, but a long way to the US Open.

I think you're just focusing on getting better and trying to kind of prepare for them.