Jessica Pegula rallies to win opening match of WTA Finals in Cancun against Elena Rybakina

Twelve months ago, Jessica Pegula's debut at the WTA Finals couldn't have gone worse. The American qualified for the season-ending championships in singles and doubles, a feather achievement in her cap, but didn't win a match in either event.

Reflecting on her and Coco Gauff's (who also went 0-6 last year) return to the WTA's capstone event on its eve, Pegula said that the pair could parlay lessons learned from 2022 into a better experience in 2023.

“I think last year we were really burnt out,” Pegula told reporters Saturday. “It was probably an accumulation of doing a lot with singles and doubles, coming up along the end of the year, having a good year, but sometimes you’re not used to having that consistent, full year.

“I think we feel better this year. I have mentally prepared myself a little bit better on what to expect coming in here. Now that it’s not my first Finals, I know what to expect, I know what’s going to happen. Hopefully, I can use that as better preparation this year mentally and physically and have some better results.”

Consider the first box checked: Opening the tournament against Elena Rybakina in Bacalar Group play Sunday evening, the American won 10 of the last 12 games from 5-3 down in a 7-5, 6-2 victory.

If preparation was crucial coming in, another p-word was also integral to Pegula's one-hour, 23-minute win: poise. She handled the Kazakh's biggest weapon, her serve, with aplomb, breaking five times. While wind, a much-talked about weather condition in advance of Sunday's opening day, wasn't as much of a factor as expected, Rybakina still totaled 35 unforced errors (to Pegula's 16).

The American also dealt well with adversity in her game: Despite only landing 49% of her first serves in the win, she won 80% of the points played behind it, and defend her second well. She's now beaten the Wimbledon champion three times in four career meetings, and with a doubles match alongside Gauff still to come on Sunday evening, Pegula no doubt welcomed an efficient win, too.

"I've already done better than last year, so that's kind of a monkey off my back," Pegula said afterwards. "She's really tough and she's been playing some really great tennis ... there were a couple of errors that she made, and luckily, I was able to capitalize right at the right time and take that, and ride the momentum."

She now boasts 42 hard-court wins on the season, which leads the WTA, and is the early pace-setter in a group that also features world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 8 seed Maria Sakkari.