Why Jessica Pegula lost her cool with her coach — Her side of the Charleston story

After her quarter-final win, Pegula spoke about what went on after the first set.

“Sometimes I’m talking to them [her coaches, Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein], it’s hard to hear sometimes with the crowd, sometimes I’m just saying things that they don’t hear, but then I’m talking to myself at the same time,” she said.

“I was a little frustrated at the end of the first set. My coach kind of told me that my attitude hadn’t been great. I got kind of annoyed and I was like, ‘What do you expect it to be?

“I’ve been competing pretty well this week!’, and then I start rambling on to myself, like, are you freaking kidding me? Like seriously! I think I’ve been fine, obviously not when I lost the first set…

“But it’s hard, I feel like for me, someone who doesn’t show a ton of emotion, there are times where I feel like I have to let it out. He claims he kind of did it on purpose, but I don’t really know if that’s true.

“But he was like, ‘I did kind of want you to get mad at me a little bit, to stop overthinking all of the other things that were happening in the match’.

“Sometimes it happens, but I am talking to myself a lot, trying to talk myself through things, trying to let out a little bit of frustration. For me, it’s always fine as long as I don’t let it linger on and creep into points. Sometimes you have to do it to just snap yourself out of a funk or a mood.”

Her week in Charleston has been anything but straightforward. She hasn’t had an easy path through any of her three matches so far.

Pegula needs shorter matches if she wants success

The 32-year-old has played a few three-setters in Charleston already this week – but this isn’t a new issue. Pegula often finds herself in long matches against players she should be beating comfortably.

If she is going to make another step towards winning big titles regularly again (she won five between 2025 and 2026), Pegula needs to find ways to finish off matches quickly again.