“We’ve had a great friendship for five years, so it’s very tough,” said Jessica Pegula’s longtime coach David Witt after the two parted ways in February this year. However, the split did not come easy for the American player. Due to injuries and poor performances, her season only went down. In a bid to turn things around, she hired Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein. And while she was battling with all these changes and “anxiety”, she turned around her season in just “three months”. Might seem unbelievable. Hear from Pegula herself.

Jessica Pegula had missed four of the first six WTA Tour 1000 tournaments and Roland Garros due to neck and rib injuries. She might have wondered if her season was over. “There’s no shot of making the year-end finals,” she thought as the grass-court season began back in June. “I’m going to have to win a major, and multiple 1000s.” Three months later, Jessica Pegula had surprisingly qualified for the WTA Finals. The magic?

It only took an impressive one-month stretch on North American hard courts for Pegula to change her stars. She won in Toronto, reached the final in Cincinnati, and reached the US Open final. Owing to which, she won 15 out of 17 matches and earned 2,950 ranking points. “I know it was always possible,” Pegula told wtatennis.com on Wednesday.

All this led to a significant amount of pressure that she couldn’t handle. In the interview with the WTA, she opened up about her experiences. “I had a lot of anxiety. I wasn’t feeling great. But slowly [the confidence] was able to build back a little bit,” said Pegula.

Currently, Jessica Pegula is the second seed at the China Open. She defeated Diane Parry in her first match and will face Veronika Kudermetova in the third round. Surprisingly, all the credit to making a comeback within months goes to the injuries, says Pegula. How?

Jessica Pegula suggests that injury makes her stronger than ever

While injuries can be a major setback to many, that is not the case with Jessica Pegula at all. Pegula, who has long been dealing with lingering neck and rib injuries, said “I believed coming back from injury, I’ve always come back better every time I’ve gotten hurt. I think leaning on that past experience helped me”.

However, behind that was a deep strategic play that helped her bounce back, she suggested that she played it safe, thereby snubbing clay court swing this year. “It’s just such a crazy year with the Olympics squeezed in. With my game, I’d rather be ready for grass and the rest of the hard-court season and grind out the rest of the year, than try and push it for clay and it doesn’t feel well. That’s why we played it safe,” said Pegula in an interview earlier in June this year.

The strategic play helped her to reach her personal best rankings in the WTA. Not only this, she also broke the grand slam curse by reaching the finals of the US Open. Currently playing in the China Open, she will be looking to carry forward her momentum and make sure that she clinches the title and climbs further up in the rankings. After a season full of ups and downs, how do you think she has played this year? Do let us know in the comments below!