Never judge, just love: Jessica Pegula and her dogs have been a winning pair

Any fan of U.S. tennis knows that this country’s highest-ranked player, Jessica Pegula, loves her dogs. They’ve been with her, in body and spirit, for some of her biggest wins and most emotional moments.

Two years ago, after winning the National Bank Open in Montreal, Pegula posted a poignant tribute to Dexter, her German shepherd, who had passed away a few weeks earlier. She thanked him for “looking out for me” from above, and helping her go from “crying on my couch” to one of the most important titles of her career.

“His favorite thing in the world was tennis,” she said.

That bittersweet triumph made it even more special when Pegula had a chance to bring Maddie, her mini Australian shepherd, on stage for the trophy ceremony after she made another title run, at the Charleston Open in April. The victory, her first on clay, vaulted her back to a career-high No. 3 in the world, and No. 1 in the States.

“The love from your dogs is unreal,” Pegula said last week from Stuttgart, where she was starting her red-clay swing. “They aren’t going to sit there and judge you; they just listen and love back, no matter what. They help me bring me back to appreciating the small moments at home, no matter what tough moments I’m facing.”

Pegula’s pet love led her to start A Lending Paw, a charity that supports organizations that rescue and rehabilitate dogs. This year, inspired by the health issues that she saw Dexter struggle with, she has taken on a spokesperson role with Maev, a brand that bills itself as “healthy human-grade raw food for dogs.”

Now Pegula can sit down and share a meal with her dogs—a prospect she seems to find appetizing.

“I love that Maev is human grade, meaning I could eat it if I wanted,” she says.

More important, of course, the dogs like it. Pegula says the food helps with their weight and energy level, and the fact that it’s frozen makes for less laborious teeth-cleaning duties for her.

“Our pets are part of our family,” she says, “so why not do the best to make them feel great?”

As for Pegula the tennis player, she has rarely felt, or played, better than she has over the past six weeks. After a surprisingly early exit at the Australian Open, she worked out the kinks in practice in February, which led to a pent-up explosion of wins in March. She went 17-2, won titles in Austin and Charleston, made the Miami Open final, and overtook her friend and former doubles partner Coco Gauff as the top American on tour.

The streak was another validation of the coaching system that Pegula put in place a year earlier. Many were surprised when, at the start of 2024, she ended a successful partnership with David Witt, and replaced him with “The Marks”—Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein—who take turns traveling with her.

Wouldn’t hearing two voices leave her confused? After an adjustment period early in 2024, Pegula’s results have proven the doubters wrong. Last summer she made her first Grand Slam final, at the US Open, and she looks ready to make another in 2025.

“At first it was just getting comfortable and getting into a routine with both, especially on the road,” Pegula says. “Now that we’ve worked together enough, it feels easy. They get along well, which is important, and they agree on how I should play and what I should improve.”

“I like that I can get different outlooks based on what I need at the time. Also, the weeks on the road get long. It’s hard spending so much time with just one person. Having two helps mix things up and keeps it fresh.”

Pegula’s success with The Marks has taken her back to a place she first reached in 2022, when she jumped from No. 18 all the way up to No. 3. Not much has changed up there over the last three years; the same two players—Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek—are still in front of her. To win a major or move higher, Pegula will likely have to conquer at least one of them, if not both, on a big stage. As of now, she has a combined 6-13 record against the Top 2, and over the last eight months Sabalenka has stopped her in finals at the US Open, Cincinnati and Miami.

Pegula is typically matter-of-fact about the number next to her name, and about running up against the same Sabalenka-Swiatek ceiling over and over. To her, just having the chance to face them is a sign of success.

“It’s funny because there are a lot of people who didn’t realize I’ve been No. 3 before,” she says. “To me there’s not that much of a difference.”

“Aryna and Iga are proving week in and week out that they’re at their best consistently. Playing them a lot means I’m going deep in tournaments, and that’s just the challenge you face when you’re trying to be the best.”

Clay has challenged me to adapt; I’m excited to see if I can use those tools this swing. Jessica Pegula

Does Pegula have a chance of being the best this time around? Now 31, she was a late-bloomer whose rise was stalled by injury multiple times. She didn’t crack the Top 10 until she was 28. For most of her career, the idea of winning a Grand Slam title or becoming No. 1 may have felt like a distant dream. While those dreams have slowly come closer to fruition, maybe some of that un-entitled mindset is still with her.

When a reporter mentioned to her that Swiatek is a “fast-twitch” athlete, Pegula joked that she must be “slow-twitch.” When another reporter asked what she thought she “represented,” Pegula said, “maybe I’m the one who sees things in perspective.” Before her final with Sabalenka in Miami, she said that winning would be “awesome,” but even if she lost, she would be “super excited about where I put myself at the beginning of the year.”

In that match, and in her other recent final-round losses to Sabalenka, I had the sense that Pegula had to work herself up to believing that she had a chance to win. In Cincinnati and at the US Open, she played better as the match went along, and grew more confident that she could counter Sabalenka’s bombs from the baseline. Both times, though, her surge came too late to get her into a third set. After the final in New York, Pegula described herself as “annoyed” by the loss, and how close she had been, as if her expectations for herself had risen as the match went along.

Pegula is a flat-hitting hard-courter at heart, and she usually plays her best tennis during the North American summer swing. This year she has peaked earlier, just as clay season begins. Normally, this is a time and place where hot streaks by Americans go to die. Could it be different for Pegula over the next couple of months? She just won on green clay in Charleston, and she has made the Madrid final and the Roland Garros quarters.

“Maybe it’s not naturally the best suited for my game, but I don’t mind clay at all,” she says. “It has challenged me to adapt and change a few things, but I love that challenge. I feel like I’ve added things to my game I didn’t have before, and I’m excited to see if I can use those tools and execute them this swing.”

Pegula has scaled the mountain again. With three Grand Slams ahead, and just two players above her, the next five months may be her best chance to reach take the few steps to the top.