The weirdest issues can come into an expert tennis participant’s thoughts at occasions.
Jessica Pegula, a shrewd, centered competitor 99 % of the time, was a part of the one % tonight throughout the first set of her 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Donna Vekic on Saturday night time in Indian Wells.
The No. 5 seed’s thoughts wandered a bit as she had hassle controlling the ball in opposition to the hard-hitting Croatian.
“I was thinking about, ‘Wow, this would not be great if I lose.’ I was like, ‘Maybe I can get out of the sponsor thing I have to do tomorrow,’” she mentioned.
In the finish Pegula pulled out of hyperspace and – as she so typically does – received a three-set battle to set a third-round conflict with Jelena Ostapenko (Pegula leads the head-to-head, 3-2).
A problem-solver extraordinaire, Pegula has now received 14 of her final 17 matches, and she or he has prevailed in seven of the final 12 matches during which she has misplaced the opening set.
“I think I’ve played so many matches and had some really good three-set matches lately where I also was pretty comfortable knowing that I could turn it around,” she mentioned.
Pegula mentioned a tighter racquet rigidity helped her flip the script on No. 103-ranked Vekic.
“I think I kind of flipped the switch pretty quickly,” she mentioned. “I switched, like the ball is kind of flying on me, so I switched to a tighter racquet. That kind of gave me a little bit more freedom to feel like I could go for my shots, and I think that kind of helped.
“I think I’m just comfortable in those situations. There’s always a little bit of panic, but at the same time, I have been dealing with those matches for a while, and maybe not as much panic as it used to be.”
