Jessica Pegula has done pretty much everything there is to do in the sport of tennis. Except win a Slam. You don’t have to remind her, though. 

“I think it’s definitely an outlying achievement that I still haven’t gotten yet,” Pegula said on Thursday in Montreal after she defeated Kamila Rakhimova 6-4, 6-0 to reach the round of 16.

To be fair, the Buffalo, N.Y. native has been no slouch at the Slams since she became a top player. She has reached at least the quarterfinals or better at ten Grand Slams since the start of 2021, and gone 63-22 at the majors. A pillar of consistency, and she’s given herself chances to win the big one.

Currently ranked at a career-high No.3 in the rankings, 32-year-old Pegula says she has learned not to put too much pressure on herself. 

“I don’t hold too much to it,” she said. “If I never win a slam, like, I’m still going to have a great life, and it’s not something that’s kind of driving me insane, I guess I could say. But is it something that is a goal and that I really want to achieve, and do I really want to win the US Open this year, like a hundred percent.” 

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Lessons from Madison

Pegula takes inspiration from Madison Keys, who reported that she had to let go of her desire to win a Slam before she could finally reach the holy grail at the 2025 US Open, it took therapy and a lot of hard work for Keys to decouple her Grand Slam results from her self-worth, but when she did it helped her unlock her best tennis.

“I think what I’m doing is pretty great, even though it’s not like the big, gold, shiny trophy at the end of the day,” pegula said. 

“I wouldn’t say I’m living and dying on that, because I just don’t feel like that’s healthy, and I don’t feel like that’s how you should think. I think that can kind of spiral and turn into something negative. I think Madison’s even kind of talked about how she kind of just let that whole thing go and it came to her.

“The sad part about our sport is everything moves very quickly, and then it’s, Are you going to win the next tournament? Are you going to win the next slam? And it kind of keeps going.

“So I think I just try to keep my perspective… I enjoy competing and playing and trying to get better.”