Jessica Pegula ‘frustrated’ after what people used to say about her on grass courts which was completely wrong

Follow us on Google Discover

Jessica Pegula explained her challenging experiences playing on grass throughout her career.

On Sunday, the American claimed her first title on the surface by winning the Berlin Championships after defeating Anna Kalinskaya.

The 30-year-old is now riding a wave of momentum after sealing the fifth title of her career and first away from hard courts.

Her latest success has not come without its difficulties however, as Pegula shared her struggles with adjusting to the slick and low bouncing surface.

Jessica Pegula explains her challenging relationship with grass court tennis

Pegula opted to miss the French Open and schedule her return from injury in time for the start of the grass court season.

She aimed to play more tennis on grass in the leadup to Wimbledon and it has already paid off following her title in Berlin.

But a lack of tennis on the surface in previous seasons led to some indifferent results, despite being told her game is ideal for grass.

“It hasn’t been bad but it’s never been that great. I think last year I finally started to feel comfortable on it, which says a lot, that’s many years of me not playing well on it,” Pegula told reporters.

“Honestly I never played that many tournaments. When you don’t have any experience on it it is just different and it’s taken me a little bit to get used to it, but everyone tells me you have the game for grass.

“The way you strike the ball, blah blah blah, you could be so good on grass. I keep hearing this and it’s been frustrating as I have never quite felt that comfortable on it up until last year.

“Also I hurt my knee on grass so after that I was always a little unsure of myself but the last few years I have developed a much better relationship with it.”

Jessica Pegula’s Berlin Championships win gives her extra confidence ahead of Wimbledon

Pegula now has a grass court title on her list of achievements but she had to work for it the hard way. She saved five championship points before beating Kalinskaya 6-7(0), 6-4, 7-6(3) in two hours and 38 minutes.

Since the start of 2023 season, Pegula became just the fourth WTA player to win an event from match point down in the final.

Delighted with her performance, she added: “This is the most grass-court confidence that I’ve had probably going into Wimbledon. Hopefully that pays off as well.

“Being able to tough out a couple of matches and have a couple of long matches, especially for the body to get ready, and dealing with a lot of the rain delays too. That’s always possible at Wimbledon as well, so that was good prep mentally as well.”