Jessica Pegula has just reached a seventh successive semifinal, despite now admitting to dealing with a “chronic” knee injury.
Pegula is into the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships, having just beaten Clara Tauson 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
With the victory, the American WTA star has now made the semifinals of every tournament she has played in since the 2025 US Open.
That superb feat is made even more remarkable following her admission of a knee issue after her latest win, which fortunately has improved.
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Jessica Pegula continues to impress despite ‘chronic knee’ injury
Pegula was asked for the key to her consistency of late, to which she replied: “I don’t know. Well, I kind of know.
“Since last summer, I was working on a lot of things. I didn’t play well in – I don’t know where it was – Montreal, Cincinnati.
“I felt like I had a couple losses that I wasn’t playing well. I didn’t feel like myself. I didn’t feel like I was playing my game. I was kind of getting overly frustrated.
“I think even though I knew at the time it was tough, I knew if I could kind of come out of that, figure out what it is I needed to change and do better, that I was going to become a much better player.
“My coaches and I worked on a lot of stuff to get my game back, to emphasize what I do really well, kind of get back to the true roots of my game, just make that even better and more efficient.
“I think I’ve been serving a lot better. Physically been feeling good. Moving better again. I think I had a little bit of a chronic knee thing that’s been back and forth since probably over a year ago. That’s been feeling a lot better.
“There’s a lot of things. But honestly been working on my game a lot. I think I’ve become a better player over the last six months.”
Despite the issue, Pegula has been hugely impressive of late, with her efforts in 2025 producing three titles in Bad Homburg, Charleston and Austin.
That took her career tally to nine, while the 31-year-old is currently close to achieving a milestone 500th career win.
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Jessica Pegula analyses Amanda Anisimova before Dubai semifinal
Ranked fifth in the world, Pegula is the fourth seed at the Dubai Tennis Championships, which incidentally has been plagued by injuries and withdrawals.
Despite her ongoing issue, the American remains in contention to lift the trophy, although she won’t have it easy in the semifinals.
Just after her match, she was uncertain if she’d be facing defending champion Mirra Andreeva or fellow American Amanda Anisimova, who met in the quarterfinal.
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Sharing her opinion on both ahead of their semifinal, Pegula commented: “Both are going to be really tough.
“I know Mirra obviously won this tournament, plays very well here. Is a great athlete, moves great. Really smart player, really good serve.
“Had a good start to the year, as well. That’s going to be tricky. We’ve also never played before, so that will be a little interesting.
“Amanda, opposite. Just played her in Australia. I’ve played her many times. We have had a lot of really close matches. It will be interesting to see.
“I think they’re going to have a good match. They both have been playing well. Yeah, just kind of gets tougher from here on out. Either way I’ll try to do my best to be ready.”
Anisimova ultimately prevailed in her thrilling clash with Andreeva, which went the entire distance in Dubai.
The American beat the defending champion 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(7-4) after two hours and 38 minutes of hugely entertaining and high-quality tennis.
And as Pegula mentioned, she knows Anisimova well, with the pair having only just met in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Pegula won that match 6-2, 7-6(7-1), extending her dominant head-to-head record with her compatriot to 4-0.
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