The most encouraging detail for Pegula going forward, in this stage of her career, is that she’s not only a level-headed, attentive student of the game—she’s also a late bloomer. This is a player who did get out of the qualifying rounds at a major until after she turned 25 in 2019, her ninth year on the tour. She’s a contender at Grand Slams who didn’t crack the Top 20, or make the quarterfinal at a major, until 2021.
Pegula’s career history is remarkable in an era during which women in their late teens and early 20s often enjoy outsized success. She has made slow but steady progress, and this may well be approaching her moment to shine. Seeking a breakthrough, Pegula split from David Witt, her long-time coach, at the beginning of the year. (As first reported by TENNIS.com) The voice in her ear now is that of Mark Merklein and Mark Knowles, who enjoys a reputation on the tour as a one of the wise heads.
Not long ago, Frances Tiafoe suggested that Pegula, his friend and occasional hitting partner, hits the “cleanest” ball of anyone on the pro tour, man or woman. Her compact, relatively flat, picture-perfect strokes add up to a game well-crafted for today’s grass. If her shots aren’t the most powerful on the tour, they are among the most precise—useful for taking time away from some of the bigger hitters on slick, low-bouncing turf. Pegula’s style compensates for the fact that she doesn’t have the quickness or explosive movement of some of her rivals. Instead, she has a fine understanding of tennis on grass. That knowledge was amply demonstrated a few weeks ago in Berlin, where Pegula defeated friend and former doubles partner Coco Gauff in the semifinals, then brushed aside five championship points held by Anna Kalinskaya to earn her first grass-court title. That win over Gauff improved Pegula’s recent record against Top 10 players to 8-1.
