By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday March 12, 2023
For those who followed the rise of Jessica Pegula in 2022 and 2023, you’ll know that Iga Swiatek was a familiar roadblock for the American, even as she was rocketing into the Top 10 for the first time, and later, the Top 5.
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The Polish juggernaut slashed past Pegula all four times they met in 2022, and closed the door on her swiftly twice at the Slams, at Roland-Garros and the US Open in the quarterfinals.
But something clicked for Pegula in January when she rifled past Swiatek at United Cup, 6-2, 6-2. Though she lost to Swiatek a month later, and decisively so, at Doha (6-3, 6-0), the American has come away with some more belief that she can play and execute at a high level against Swiatek.
She was asked if the win helped her chip away at Iga’s “aura of invincibility in her mind” and said the following:
“She's definitely not invincible in my mind,” Pegula told reporters on Sunday at Indian Wells, after her three-set win over Anastasia Potapova. “I have played her in pretty close matches. But obviously with her winning, a lot of matches and the streak she went on last year, she definitely was feeling it for a while there."
Pegula admits that she was nearly perfect, in conditions that suited her perfectly. But that doesn't change the fact that the triumph helped her get a better feel for what might work against Swiatek on a given day.
“But [beating her at United Cup] definitely helps," she said. "I think it helps just knowing what I have to do to win, knowing what worked, what didn't work. I played a pretty flawless match, to be honest, that match. I kind of did everything I wanted to do and it was just working. Some days are like that and you take it. But I think obviously the conditions were different, courts were pretty fast, and I think it maybe favored me a little bit.”
Pegula believes that she learned a lot from the contest and hopes the tactics and patterns stick with her when the pair meet in the future.
“It definitely helps strategy-wise, what I know I need to do and knowing that it worked, for the most part, definitely gives confidence, for whenever the next time I have to play her,” she said. “You just try to do it. It doesn't always execute perfectly, but I think it kind of gives an idea of what you should do and how you have to play to beat her, because she's obviously the best player right now.”