Jessica Pegula on Serena Williams’ retirement breaks new ground, Coco Gauff’s Gen-Z humor, and more

Jessica Pegula is coming off another stellar year, with her performance on and off the court earning her a spot on Forbes magazine’s latest “30 Under 30” list.

The American was named to the 2023 Athlete Group along with world sprint champion Shakari Richardson, NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson and basketball stars Nafessa Collier and Anthony Edwards.

The 29-year-old describes herself as a late bloomer as she has made significant progress over the past few years. She remained outside the top 50 in the WTA rankings in 2020, but is ranked No. 18 in 2021 and reached a career-high No. 3 last year.

She has also had a lot of success in doubles, finishing runner-up at the French Open last year with Coco Gauff and becoming world number one this September.

In a wide-ranging interview with Forbes.com, Pegula spoke about her journey, saying: “I always thought I was going to achieve this, but at the same time, putting in all the work and achieving it four years later, about being in Where my mindset was, I didn’t know if I really believed it. I did, but I didn’t. “It’s been a very long journey. “

With the great Serena Williams retiring last year, the likes of Goff and Pegula have a chance to take over the No. 1 spot in the country and generally lead the way.

Gauff has raised her game after winning the U.S. Open this year, but Pegula hopes to follow in the footsteps of her doubles partner.

“Everyone has a lot of opportunities and we saw Coco Gauff take advantage of that at the U.S. Open and really get hot this summer and prove that she can be a Grand Slam champion. That definitely inspires me as well,” she says.

“I think there are a lot of opportunities for a lot of girls and I’m one of them, so hopefully I can take advantage of that.

“I think it’s been different now that Serena is out, it feels more open. She always seemed to be the favorite even when she wasn’t playing full-time, but that seems different now. “We’ve seen who is at the top Players, but it’s an opportunity for everyone, so why not me. “

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She added: “I don’t think anyone can fill Serena’s shoes. It definitely helps that there are other top Americans there because I can’t imagine being the only American.

“There’s a lot of pressure on someone like Coco to be seen as the next Serena or Venus. I really don’t think that’s a role that I have to fill. But when I can say ‘I’ve earned it It’s really cool to have a little statistic like that when I’ve played so many hard court games and haven’t done it since Serena.”

Pegula was also asked about her relationship with 19-year-old doubles partner Gauff and the generation gap.

“She’s definitely Gen Z. I didn’t really notice that, and then when we started hanging out more or just being together more on tour, I was like ‘OK, there’s definitely a generation gap here’ , no friction, but fun,” she joked.

“I don’t know, she makes fun of me because I don’t understand TikTok trends and stuff like that, but it’s more of a mutual fun.”

She added: “I think it’s cool, I was the only one to beat her this summer before she won the US Open. We’re very friendly. We learned a lot from playing doubles and it was fun to play, even though We have to play singles.

“It’s not a big deal, we’re used to it. Most girls are used to playing singles with a doubles partner.”