"My mom always kind of joked I was the first sports team as far as helping me with my tennis career growing up" - Jessica Pegula dedicates her Guadalajara Open win to her mother
After playing professional tennis for around 13 years, Jessica Pegula finally won her first WTA 1000 singles title at the Guadalajara Open in Mexico on Sunday. The third-seed American beat fourth-seed Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 10 minutes, beating the Greek for the second time in their fifth meeting.
After winning the match and lifting the coveted trophy, Pegula dedicated the win to her mother, Kim Pegula, who struggled with some "unexpected health issues" earlier this year. In a post-match press conference, the 28-year-old further spoke about her mother, saying that she got quite nervous while watching her daughter play and that she would have enjoyed watching her all week.
"My mom always kind of joked that I was the first sports team as far as helping me with my tennis career growing up," Jessica Pegula said. "I definitely wanted to dedicate it to her. She's had a really tough year. I know she was watching. I'm sure she appreciated that. Usually, she gets very nervous watching, so it's special she got to watch me all week. That's really cool. I'm sure she was still very nervous."
Sunday's victory meant that Pegula reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 3 and her win-loss record for the season improved to 41-17. It was just her second singles title on the tour since winning the Washington Open in 2019.
While Pegula broke her 27-year-old opponent as many as five times over two sets, Sakkari was able to break her just once late in the second set. Before the summit clash, the new World No. 3 defeated four Grand Slam winners in Elena Rybakina, Bianca Andreescu, Sloane Stephens, and Victoria Azarenka.
"I'm a very ambitious person, a bit of a perfectionist as well" - Jessica Pegula
In a press conference after the Guadalajara Open final, Jessica Pegula was asked if she was ambitious, to which she replied that it was impossible to win at the top level without being ambitious. She also stated that her win in Mexico will give her a lot of confidence going into the next tournaments.
"I'm definitely a very ambitious person. A little bit of a perfectionist as well," Pegula said. "Yeah, I don't think you could win if you weren't ambitious, especially at this level. There's so many tough players and tough girls that are doing so well. It just means a lot. It makes me excited. I feel like it's going to give me more motivation going forward knowing I can win these big titles."
"I think it will give me a lot of confidence ending the year going into next year. I'm sure I'm going to set new goals and everything, but it's definitely nice to set goals and achieve them. If you're ambitious, that's usually what you do," she added.