AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2025

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

O. DANILOVIC/J. Pegula

7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Jess, tough night at the office. What made Olga a difficult opponent for you this evening?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I mean, from 3-All in the tiebreaker, she played some pretty good tennis. Just kind of started going for her shots I feel like a lot more. Her serve percentage didn't really drop. Her level, it just got better.

Maybe had chances in that first game she served -- or second game she served in the second, but she hit a winner on every breakpoint opportunity I had.

So, yeah, credit to her. She played really well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Do you think it was more a question of her not giving you looks when you needed them?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I mean, she served, like, 80% first serves. When you are playing against a lefty, that's really tough. Conditions were so slow. It was slower than a clay court, it felt like.

The balls were so heavy, and that totally I think favored her for sure. Especially with her lefty kind of whippy forehand up to my backhand, it's really tough.

Then, you know, usually where I feel like I can get free points off of returning really well, I felt like because she was making a lot of high-percentage first serves, and then with the conditions being slower, like, my ball just wasn't getting me any free points, it seemed like.

Then, yeah, like I said, then she just kind of stepped it up I felt like literally from 3-All in the tiebreak. Her level didn't really drop. Maybe just that one game. Again, she hit, like, two, three winners on every breakpoint. Not really much I could have done.

Q. The conditions just down to the cold and night session compared to other...

JESSICA PEGULA: I mean, it's not even the same tournament from, like, my first round match playing on Cain during the day. It's fast, and then playing in there at night it's not even remotely the same.

It's tough. Everyone has to deal with it. Some deal with it better than others. Obviously I prefer faster. I think everyone on tour knows that.

You could say the same for some girl having to go play me on Cain during the day that's not going to like it. It's just tough having to deal with those conditions and playing against an opponent, I think, where it also favors her. But not just favors her, but also she played really well. I think it was all those factors trending in her direction tonight.

Q. Was there a part of your game that frustrated you the most, or like you said, it was just one of those nights?

JESSICA PEGULA: The first set, I mean, we were playing good tennis. I didn't feel like I played bad at all. I just wasn't getting the free points, and I wasn't able to kind of step in the court and kind of hurt her with my ball and move forward as well as I would have liked.

I was trying to. It just kind of wasn't happening. Then, like I said, with the return, usually I'm able to hurt a lot of people with my returns and just couldn't really get ahead in a game. I think I got ahead 30-Love in the first game, and I missed that short backhand, and now, like, looking back, I'm, like, Wow, that was a massive point, because it might have been the only time I maybe would have broken her in the first. Going up 2-0 now looking back, was massive, but obviously I wouldn't have known that at the time, so...

Q. I wanted to ask about Danielle Collins, who has been getting a lot of conversation the last 24 hours or so. I know you two are close, and you've been a support for her. What have you thought about all the attention she's been getting for being willing to antagonize sometimes?

JESSICA PEGULA: I mean, I think Coco said it best. Danielle is going to be Danielle. I think that's the perfect way to put it (smiling).

I appreciate that she's honest and she is who she is. I think it's honestly great for the sport to have that entertainment and to see her personality. Something different. Tennis can be kind of stuffy, and so I think to have that mentality that she has, she said it. She's, like, it doesn't matter if it's a good crowd or a bad crowd. She's going to feed off of it and try to use that to motivate her.

Not everybody can do that. Not everybody likes to do that. Not everyone is good at it. If you are and you are out there and you are trying to win and that's what helps you win, like, you're going to do that.

Obviously my personality is much different, but I can respect and appreciate that she doesn't really care. She's always been super nice to me, and I was just talking to her a lot today about a bunch of random different things. Her renovating her house and doing all this stuff. She's always been great.

So on court she kind of has this little persona that she likes to do. I mean, yeah, I don't know how to explain it other than, like, she's just going to be herself. I think you have to kind of respect that at the end of the day and appreciate that, especially for a woman's sport. I think it's kind of refreshing to have that.

Q. Do you think people around the sport could be less stuffy, as you're saying, or less fragile about these things?

JESSICA PEGULA: It's always kind of been a little bit of a stuffy, uppity kind of sport. I think you see that even when people think Novak is a villain or Nick is the villain and stuff like that. I think fans just like to assume that they know and they put these people in these roles.

At the end of the day we're entertainers, and I think it can help the sport having more personality. I think it's refreshing to see, and I think nowadays it's maybe tougher with social media that everything kind of comes back to haunt you or maybe there's something out there that gets taken out of context and gets taken the wrong way, whereas I feel like back in the day when social media wasn't around, you had so much more personality in tennis, probably because those things didn't stick with you forever.

So she's not afraid if it's out there, if there's a video of her. I think, like you said, or like she said, she's able to laugh at it too and kind of look back and be, like, Okay, maybe that was too much. At least I was just out there being me.

Yeah, I think it's nice for the sport. I do think social media and stuff has kind of maybe changed that, but I think the more personality, the better.