Posted by Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday August 15, 2024
There can be benefits to missing time on a tennis tour, too Jessica Pegulawho missed his prime in 2024 due to injury, is hoping to capitalize during a time of year when many of his peers are tired from the grind.
Pegula, who just won the title in Toronto last week, told the media that he feels fresher than usual this time of year, because an injury kept him out of action at the start of the season.
“I missed a lot at the beginning of the year, so I feel good mentally where some people might feel stressed,” said David Kane of Tennis.com. “I’m mentally determined to finish the year better than I could have done a few years ago.”
Pegula missed time in January and early February with a neck injury, then skipped the European clay season due to rib injuries, among other things.
Surprisingly, it looks good on the 30-year-old list on the WTA Tour. With many of the tour’s top players struggling — see Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina, who were both eliminated in Cincinnati on Thursday — Pegula is in a good position to make a push at the US Open.
He would certainly like to break through and reach the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time. She has lost each of her previous Grand Slam quarterfinals, but maybe those new legs will be the difference for her at Flushing Meadows in a few weeks.
In Canada, Pegula became the first woman to repeat as champion since Martina Hingis in 2000, defeating Amanda Anisimova in the final.
🏆 GOING BACK 🏆@JPegula defends his title in #NBO24becoming the first woman in the 21st century to win two straight titles in Canada 🤠@national bank pic.twitter.com/SDXIc2A44J
— National Bank Open (@NBOtoronto) August 12, 2024
Pegula will face Karolina Muchova in the second round on Friday in a rain-stopped match Thursday night in Cincinnati.
Pegula didn’t have the best time at the Olympics a few weeks ago, losing in the second round in singles and doubles, but she quickly returned to her favorite spot and hopes to finish the season strong.
He said it was good for him to move from Paris to Toronto and throw himself into a difficult court season with more time to focus on the difficulties of changing locations.
“Being able to come back next week and focus on competing in the right way almost helped me,” she said, according to Tennis.com. “I didn’t have time to think about how I really felt… It was like, ‘Okay, let’s see where we are. Let’s try to get the movement back, the feeling back on the hard court and the balls,’ and things like that. I almost wonder if it helped.”
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