AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 12, 2025

Jessica Pegula

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Jess, you've just come from Adelaide last night. Great week. Talk about how you're feeling, how the matches went there, start of the season.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, it was always really nice to get a good first week in my first tournament of 2025. So I think it kind of went pretty much how I wanted it to go in terms of trying to get matches, testing out my body physically after the knee injury in Saudi. Kind of got everything I feel like I needed before coming here.

Super excited to kind of just get going tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling physically how last year ended, things breaking down a bit for you, and what was recovery?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I just had a little bit of a knee thing. It started in Asia, and it kind of kept getting worse through Saudi. It was something I kind of honestly thought was going to go away.

In Saudi I'm not sure if playing on that indoor surface can be tricky sometimes on the body. It really flared up. Luckily I was able to manage it throughout the off-season.

To be honest, it wasn't perfect. I would have loved to try and play Brisbane probably, but it just didn't work out just as far as getting enough training in before flying over here. I wanted to make sure physically I felt, like, ready to go.

Just kind of needed that extra week. But I guess it worked out perfect in hindsight. Obviously maybe if I lost early in Adelaide, maybe wouldn't be saying that, but I think luckily it worked out. Feeling pretty good now.

Q. In terms of not just the recovery process but getting back to training, how much did the focus on trying to kind of get healthy again impact maybe how you prepared for the new season? Were you able to continue to work on the stuff that you and Marks were working on improving...

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, it was tough at first. It was kind of one of the those things when we started to push, we had to drop back for a few days, push again. It was frustrating because I felt like I couldn't quite do as much as I wanted to for a longer period of time.

I mean, again, it probably wasn't ideal as far as that, but there was still a lot of stuff we could work on without even having had the knee injury.

Yeah, so to be honest, no, not really. Didn't get to work on everything. Then it goes so fast with the holidays and everything. But we did get to work on still quite a few things. Again, taking that extra week I think really helped me kind of be able to clean up some of the things I was working on in my game.

Yeah, hopefully have to try to implement some stuff during tournaments, I guess (smiling).

Q. I don't know how much you think about this in an optimistic way. You don't have a lot of points to defend for a bunch of months. Does that affect your schedule? Is that something that can drive you?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, definitely. I think I was having those goals, even though that's not necessarily my whole priority anymore, rankings or points. But at the same time that's kind of why I decided if I push it too early and kind of set myself back, I knew that I didn't have a lot of points.

I wanted to be really healthy for especially the first half of the year because I don't have a lot of points to defend. Obviously the second half I have a lot more.

Definitely for the long-term and the longevity of the year, it definitely comes into play, at least for me. I wanted to be able to take that extra week and make sure I was properly prepared because it's not just last week. I mean, obviously it's a slam, so it's a priority.

I wanted to make sure I felt good after this and that kind of whole swing, Indian Wells, Miami, Middle East, which I skipped, and the clay season I skipped, too. Definitely something I think about.

Q. Looking back on it now, how critical was last year and the success that you had on the back half of the season? At the start of the year, the burn-out, but you just turned 30, different coaching changes. It would have been very easy if the results hadn't come to think it's kind of on the backside of things.

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah.

Q. Now that you're away from it, how important do you think it would have been if the results had not gone that way?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I mean, it would have sucked (smiling). It would have been not as ideal. My year was so up and down, like you're saying. I don't think I would have been that really upset because there were just injuries, coaching changes, health issues. There were a lot of things going on.

But it just goes to show you, if you can kind of get back on track and put together a good couple weeks, you can have some great results. I think it proved to myself maybe I don't need as many matches as I think I could. I can still find that and confidence and play some good tennis, even if the matches and schedule isn't perfect.

Even last week it was a nice reminder that even though the year didn't end great for me, wasn't playing well, didn't get a perfect pre-season, I was still able to play some good tennis and put a solid week before a slam and beat some good players.

It's a nice reminder that even if things aren't going perfectly that you can still have good results and turn it around. I think that's something, again, last year was definitely a way more up-and-down year than I had the few years before where it felt like I was playing all the time and having decent results all the time.

It was a challenge, but a nice reminder that I'm still a top player, can have great results. Obviously being healthy helps, but I don't need to play all the time to have that confidence.

Q. You're playing Maya Joint first round. What do you know about her? She played well in Brisbane, played against Azarenka. What do you think about her?

JESSICA PEGULA: Yeah, I remember watching her play Maddie at the US Open. I do remember, like, kind of watching that match. Then I saw her results obviously in Brisbane. She was playing well in Hobart.

Seems like a really good, young, talented player. Obviously coming here, nothing to lose, wild card. Also with a lot of confidence, especially from last week.

I think it's going to be a really tough match. Only having a day here as well to kind of get used to the conditions. Of course, it rained too, so I wasn't able to hit outside (smiling).

I mean, same thing. I just came off a great week, too. So I'm feeling pretty good. It's always tough playing a player where you don't have a lot of familiarity there. Playing someone like that, they're confident, going to their best game.

Nothing to lose, like I said. I'll take it as a good challenge. Hopefully it will be a good crowd as well, playing an Aussie in Australia here.

Q. Bills have a big game in the morning. Are you going to watch it and be confident they're going to beat the Broncos?

JESSICA PEGULA: I think it's on, what, like 5 a.m. here time? Probably won't be up that early. Maybe catch, like, the second half of it.

Yes, obviously I think they have a great chance to win this game. I don't know, just makes me nervous. It's kind of like a slam. You never really know what's going to happen. Playoffs start, you have the favorites, but you never know what's going to happen.

I hope they win. I hope they can come out very healthy if they do win, no major injuries. That would be great. I think staying healthy for those NFL teams is massive in the playoffs.

Hopefully they get a good win and no injuries.

Q. Does it feel different being at a slam for the first time you played seven matches at one? All the way to the end last time. Do you think it can be something you understand more?

JESSICA PEGULA: I mean, it's definitely a challenge having to stay locked in for two weeks. It's not easy. Slams can be stressful. The days are long. There's a lot of people. You're constantly, like, way overstimulated.

I think I learned a lot from those two weeks at the US Open, learning how to balance that. Kind of like I said before, I took that challenge of playing well in Toronto and Cincy as well as, again, like a challenge for me to be able to focus for those two weeks and not get too high, not get too low physically, mentally. I think that helped going into the US Open.

Definitely learned a lot from just that month in general of having to play a lot of matches and trying to win big matches and play your best tennis day in, day out.

Hopefully that experience will help me these two weeks and the rest of the year.