Jessica Pegula graduates from the WTA 1000 in Mexico

Jessica Pegula had a challenge of champions on the way to her first WTA 1000 title. The altitude and the challenge of not thinking about this could affect her level of play, in addition to the fact that there have been difficult days for the health of her mother Kim, who could not attend the Guadalajara Open, but he took the victory dedication.

“My mom always supported me to grow in my tennis career. I definitely wanted to dedicate it to her, because she’s had a really rough year. I know she was looking at me, I’m sure she appreciates the dedication. Usually she gets very nervous when she watches the games and she watched me all week.”

The current best American in the WTA ranking defeated Greek María Sakkari, 6-2, 6-3, in 1 hour 10 minutes, who became the favorite of Mexican fans throughout the week. She was heard in the cheers at each of her matches and throughout the Pan American Tennis Center, where she was allowed to sign jumbo-balls and tournament memorabilia. Sakkari, upon receiving her recognition as second place, said at the award ceremony that Jessica is a humble person and that she has worked hard to deserve the title. Pegula, who was born in Buffalo, New York, said that she almost finished her season in the previous tournament, in San Diego, where in the semifinal she fell to number one Iga Swiatek. She also did not think that she was going to win the tournament because of the challenges of the altitude, to which she had a hard time adapting.

“I don’t think I can use (altitude) as an excuse anymore. I have tested myself a lot. I played in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Denver, Colorado. It all ended in disaster. I swore to stay away from altitude for the last two years, while my coach told me: you love altitude. I just said: we’ll see. Yes, I think we are going to have to go back to Mexico.”

This year, Pegula improved her WTA main draw win-loss record to 41-17. Only two players have won more WTA main draw matches than Pegula in 2022: World No.1 Iga Swiatek (62) and World No.2 Ons Jabeur (46).

On her way to the title, before beating Sakkari, she defeated four Grand Slam champions; After advancing bye in the first round, she beat Elena Rybakina in the second, Bianca Andreescu in the round of 16, Sloane Stephens in the quarters, and Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals. Thanks to her triumph, Jessica climbs to number 3 in the WTA ranking. With 42 wins on the year, she is the third highest winner only behind Swiatek (64) and Jabeur (46).

“Guadalajara Open will give me more motivation in the future knowing that I can win these big titles. It will give me a lot of confidence to finish the year and enter the next one. Well, I still have the WTA Finals and the Billie Jean King Cup, basically for the rest of the month. So I’m really going to focus on that. Obviously I will take a little vacation, I will rest a little, I will enjoy the vacations in the United States, I will spend some time with my family. Yes, the off-season is right around the corner. I will definitely be training again in December, yes, I hope to start the year again in Australia.”

marisol.rojas@eleconomista.mx