Even a misbehaving frame couldn’t stop Jessica Pegula from upping her win streak

CINCINNATI, Ohio—As Jessica Pegula walked out for her post-match interview in Center Court here on Wednesday, Alicia Keys’ “This Girl is On Fire” began to blare from the loudspeakers. The song choice was very much on the nose.

Pegula is coming off a WTA 1000 title run in Montreal, in which she beat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. She’s featured in a glitzed-up spread in Vanity Fair, along with many of her fellow American players. And as her home-state Slam, the US Open, approaches, she may be better-positioned than she has ever been to win a major. Plus, Pegula was feeling the heat in Cincy today, along with everyone else, on a classically humid August day in the Midwest.

But “on fire” was appropriate for a different reason, and an unusual one. For most of the first set, Pegula acted like she was wanted to set her racquet on fire. As shot after shot flew over the baseline in the early going, she banged on her strings and shook her head. She switched one frame for another, and then switched them back a game later. She stared at the head of her racquet, then turned it over and stared at the handle, as if to ask, “Who even are you?”

Finally, after dropping the first set to Martina Trevisan, Pegula slammed the stick to the court, then picked it up and slammed it again. Seemingly determined on total demolition, she put two hands on it and slammed it one more time. This was borderline-unprecedented behavior from the even-keel Pegula, yet she didn’t seem to be able to put her heart completely into it. By the time the racquet came crashing to the court surface, she had eased off a little, and the frame ended up with just a small break. Despite failing to obliterate it, Pegula felt bad later.

“I need to say sorry to my racquet,” she said.

The sacrifice was worth it. In the second set, Pegula began to find a rhythm. After struggling early to adjust to the fast courts and fast balls—“they’re, like, bald,” she said—she stopped her shots from sailing, and began to rip them rather than guide them hesitantly around the court.

Still, she couldn’t quite shake Trevisan, who used every disruptive idea she could think of—moonballs, heavy-topspin forehands, two-hand slices, short-angled backhands. Pegula had already beaten the undersized Italian twice this season, but she admits that she doesn’t like facing her. Down the stretch, Trevisan forced Pegula to come up with the goods on important points. Trevisan went up 15-30 with Pegula serving at 3-2, and 15-30 again at 4-3. Each time, Pegula dug in and found a winning ground stroke when she absolutely needed it. It’s the mark of a confident player.

“Physically and mentally I feel good, but conditions are definitely different [from Montreal],” Pegula said. “It feels much different than last week. So I think I’m proud I was able to kind of adjust and find my way through it today.”

“It feels like you're on edge because you’re not really sure what the balls are going to do.”

Looking longer-term, does Pegula have Slam-winning confidence right now? The 29-year-old has made the quarters at all four majors, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, but has yet to go farther. She’s steady enough to beat just about everyone, but so far hasn’t developed a next gear that would let her compete in those events with the sluggers ahead of her, Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, oandElena Rybakina at the Slams. Without a bailout serve or killer forehand, Pegula can’t rely on cheap points the way they can. She can’t hit her way out of an off day.

The dilemma, Pegula told Tennis Channel today, is finding the balance between staying steady and stepping forward.

“I can win so many matches just by being solid on the baseline,” she said. It’s a question of, “Do you want to risk more?”

At the same time, she knows her athletic limits.

“Am I like Iga?” she said when she was asked about trying to slide on hard courts, the way Swiatek does. “Definitely not…It seems to be more like the really fast-twitch people, and I don’t know, I don’t have a lot of fast-twitch.”

Still, Pegula has slow-twitched her way to two wins over Swiatek this season. With the right racquet, who knows what she can do over the next month, which may be the biggest of her career so far.