Andy Roddick was impressed with a trait showcased by Jessica Pegula at the US Open.
The American finally broke her losing streak in Grand Slam quarter-finals by reaching the championship match at Flushing Meadows.
This marked the 30-year-old’s first major final and she gave it her all against Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s final.
Though Jessica Pegula came up short in New York, she rediscovered her best level of tennis over the North American summer hard court swing.
What did Andy Roddick like about Jessica Pegula’s performances at the US Open?
The new World number three has spoken multiple times about how comfortable she feels on the hard courts and that has been clear to see over the past month.
Pegula won the Canadian Open, reached the Cincinnati Open final and reached the US Open final after dropping just one set.
During the latest episode of his ‘Served’ podcast, Roddick commented on a shot that Pegula had started playing that enabled her to achieve her best Grand Slam result at Flushing Meadows.
“I think this tournament she won more of those 30-30 points where it wasn’t scripted, where it wasn’t the way that she drew it up. And also, sneaky little defensive slice now where she can kind of live to fight another ball,” Roddick said.
“She gets overpowered but then she’s basically finding a way to sneak three more points per set where it’s kind of weird looking, where it’s not this first ball, drive to the corners, get control of it.”
Jessica Pegula reacts to losing the US Open final
Pegula battled hard against Sabalenka, who she was trying to beat for the third time in her career. This was a rematch from the Cincinnati Open final and their clash in New York proved to be a much closer affair.
Sabalenka failed to serve out the first set at 5-3 and Pegula broke back to level at 5-5, but the Belarusian secured the break in her opponent’s next service game to win the set.
Pegula opened up a 5-3 lead in set two and failed to serve out the match before losing four successive games to miss out on becoming a Grand Slam champion.
“I’m just annoyed I lost right now,” a disappointed Pegula said afterward. “Everyone is like, ‘Congrats, amazing tournament.’ I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever’.
“I think maybe I handled the moment a little bit better this year with just having maybe a different perspective of I had a rough start to the year and I didn’t really expect to be doing this well in the hard court swing and I was able to kind of flip that script.”
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