You know how sometimes you get so close to something amazing, but it just slips away? That’s a tough feeling, and a lot of top tennis players know it all too well. Think of legends like Rosie Casals, Elena Dementieva, or Mary Joe Fernandez – they were among best WTA stars, but never quite reached the peak of a Grand Slam win. Even today, players like Madison Keys and Ons Jabeur have felt that sting of almost-victory. But after her amazing run at the 2024 US Open, Jessica Pegula seems ready to break through. With a fresh coaching team, she’s got the potential to finally grab that elusive Grand Slam title. At least, that’s what a former pro, who herself boasts Slams achieved-in-one-go, believes.

It is none other than American former tennis player Lindsay Davenport. On Thursday, the three-time Grand Slam champion at US Open (1998), Wimbledon (1999), and Australian Open (2000), sat with Tennis Channel Live Podcast’s panel, Prakash Amritraj, Steve Weissman, Martina Navratilova, Jon Wertheim. There, Weissman, the host, highlighted a fact about this year’s Australian Open: 7 WTA tennis players who have reached the final at majors but are yet to win one. He couldn’t resist asking Davenport, who she thought would come out on top in Melbourne.

Davenport, taking note of Jessica Pegula’s US Open finals finish last year, said, “I think that’s the key point(US Open Final) for Pegula now. She should be able to play in these majors a little bit more relaxed. It was a lot of tension and a lot of stress on Jess. She lost in so many GS QFs. that was a big goal for her in 2024. One of the reasons why she had the brand new coaching team of Mark Knowles, Mark Merklein, all to have the success she experienced in NY. Now does it furore up to play even better in Australia? It should. If she is healthy, she is feeling confident about her game, every player in the draw knows ‘Jess is a threat to win the title‘.”

Pegula made tough decisions on her path to her first Grand Slam final. Following five unsuccessful quarterfinals appearances at Grand Slam events (three at the Australian Open, one at Roland Garros, and another one at Wimbledon) alongside mentor David Witt, Pegula understood it was time for a change.

The partnership, that lasted 5 years, had thrust Pegula to World No. 3 and earned Witt the 2022 WTA Coach of the Year, came shortly after a shocking second-round exit at the 2024 Australian Open. “I just turned 30,” she admitted. “So I kind of feel like that’s also a point where I’m toward the end of my career. I just needed to make difficult decisions.”

Almost a month later, the American’s coaching camp saw the addition of Mark Knowles, a former world No. 1 in doubles, with three Grand Slam titles to his name, having previously molded the careers of Milos Raonic, Jack Sock and Mardy Fish. Mark Merklein, a former doubles specialist who partnered with Knowles for the Bahamas at the 2000 Olympics, joined him.

Pegula finally brought down the quarterfinal wall that had weighed on her for years under her new mentors. She not only reached her first Grand Slam final but did so by defeating then-world No. 1 Swiatek in Quarterfinals and had turned an 0-5 unwarranted Quarterfinals record into a career-defining moment. Though Aryna Sabalenka ultimately claimed the title in straight sets, something had shifted.

Pegula’s run saw her back to World No. 3, matching her career-high ranking. Pegula’s run in the US Open is reminiscent of the journeys of Ons Jabeur and Madison Keys. Both players are yet to win Grand Slam but had made it to the US Open finals in 2017 and 2022, respectively.

As she prepares for the 2025 Australian Open, the World No. 6 might look back to her inspiring run at the US Open for the motivation she needs to clinch her first Grand Slam victory in Melbourne.

Jessica Pegula channeling her US Open momentum for the Australian Open

The 2025 season for Jessica Pegula did not start well. A recurring knee injury forced the former world No. 3 to withdraw from Brisbane International. This injury is the one that derailed her WTA Finals campaign in Riyadh, forced her withdrawal from the group stage match against Iga Swiatek.

However, US Open finalist when finally took the court at the Adelaide International, she made her intentions clear. She set an all-American clash against Ashlyn Krueger in the quarterfinals to clear her path for the semis and finals. Although she lost to fellow American Madison Keys in the final (3-6, 6-4, 1-6), it was a confidence boost after a prolonged injury.

Well, the Australian Open has not started on a bad note too for her. She has been steady, advancing to the third round yesterday. One of her highlights has been a win against Elise Mertens in the second round. It was the first time she beat the Belgian in four matches. As Davenport noted, “You gotta get little wins along the way as well.”

But Pegula might be looking for more motivation and it might come from the US Open. As she herself admitted, “It’s funny how it feels like so long ago, but also feels like last week at the same time,” at the Adelaide International press conference. “Tennis is weird like that. It’s definitely a motivation for me to want to do well this year and keep going for my goals and everything that I’ve set out for myself this year. It’s still a nice, fresh memory I feel like in my mind. Hopefully, it stays that way, I think, to keep the motivation going.”

Looking ahead, Pegula, who lost in the second round of the Australian Open in 2024, will face a stern test in her third-round clash against Serbian Olga Danilović on Friday at Rod Laver Arena.