Jessica Pegula has enjoyed a truly outstanding past four weeks of tennis, turning what seemed destined to be a disappointing and underwhelming season into arguably one of the best of her career.
After all, exiting early from both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, whilst being forced to miss Roland Garros through injury, put plenty of pressure on her return to New York.
Alas, some of that was alleviated when she won in Toronto, claiming yet another Masters 1000 title before then reaching the final in Cincinnati too.
So, she was able to subsequently hit with freedom and power to storm into the US Open final before Aryna Sabalenka unfortunately proved just too good.
Aryna Sabalenka sends message to Jessica Pegula after US Open final
Conducting her on-court interview immediately after her win, Sabalenka was full of energy despite having just finished off a gruelling two weeks of work.
However, that is to be expected, fresh from winning her third Grand Slam title and a first in New York.
At first, Sabalenka was left speechless by the US Open crowd, but later she turned her attention to her opponent.
After all, Jessica Pegula had performed so admirably to reach this stage, and deserved credit.
Credit is exactly what the Belarusian sought to give her, claiming: ‘Talking about Jessica, I know how tough it is losing in the finals, you’re showing some amazing tennis and I’m more than sure that one day you’re going to get one… I mean not one, maybe more, but let’s start from one!’
Jessica Pegula finally breaks her unwanted Grand Slam record
Although she did not claim the title she so desperately wanted, reaching the final remains a huge feat for the 30-year-old.
After all, in doing so she has finally broken her unwanted record at Grand Slams, having surpassed the quarter-final stage at last.
Despite having been a comfortable top-ten player for some time now, it remained the monkey that she just could not shake off her back no matter how hard she tried.
In the end, she had reached six quarter-finals before this last week saw her finally overcome that mental barrier.
So, even if she leaves New York empty-handed, the significance of finally breaking this duck could be huge in allowing her to regularly achieve that feat in the final few years of her career.
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