Saturday preview: Now 30, Pegula's gamble to reinvigorate her game

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Jessica Pegula, in a preemptive strike, decided to change things up this year before she crossed the threshold of 30 years old in February.

She moved on from coach David Witt, with whom she had experienced a dramatic transformation into one of the best in the world. In four-plus years with Witt -- the longtime coach of Venus Williams and the new coach of Maria Sakkari -- Pegula put together an enviable resume. She rose to a career high No.3 in singles and, in 2023 alone, won the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal, the title in Seoul and reached finals in Doha, Tokyo and the WTA Finals in Cancun. She also reached No.1 in doubles, playing with Coco Gauff.

She was uber-consistent in the Grand Slams, reaching six quarterfinals from 2021-23. But that was as far as she got.

Pegula’s bucket-list goals going forward address those aspirations to move further along.

“Yeah, obviously Grand Slams,” she told reporters at the BNP Paribas Open. “I think being No.1 … those were always goals of mine when I was younger. Winning more tournaments. Every time we’re entered in a tournament, the goal is to win it by the end of the week.

“I want to keep pushing myself to improve.”

Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein, both former ATP Tour players, will split the coaching duties. Pegula, nursing a neck injury, spent a week with Knowles in Dallas working on her game. She also had time on the court with another former ATP Tour player -- Grand Slam champion Andy Roddick.

In a fortuitous series of events, Roddick happened to be in Florida, working as an analyst for the Pickleball Slam in Hollywood. Texting back and forth with Pegula, he volunteered to visit her at home in Boca Raton, a town he lived in growing up.

“We hit a little bit, hit some serves and he was just kind of picking my brain on how I like to play, and he was telling me his thoughts,” Pegula said. “I mean, he’s pretty straight up with you. He said, ‘You can listen to me, not listen to me -- I don’t really care.’

“I appreciated that, and it was pretty cool to get advice from him. It was fun to have those conversations with him, and maybe learn some things I didn’t think about.”

Pegula told reporters she is in a different place, personally and professionally.

 “I needed to take some chances. I’m 30 -- not that 30’s the end -- but I didn’t want to look back and think I should have tried something else, or something different,” she said.

There are likely more changes coming for Pegula as well. While she and Gauff grew into a dangerous doubles team, they were so successful those extra matches were beginning to compromise their Top 5 singles games. 

“We just started winning a lot,” Pegula said. “And then, it was, ‘OK, we’ll just keep playing.’ It was more of an accident, but a good accident.

“I think until the [Paris] Olympics I want to focus on it a little bit [on doubles] because I want to do well there. But I think maybe after I probably won’t be putting it as high a priority.”

According to 22-time major doubles champion Pam Shriver, new voices can have an immediate impact.

“One of the things I learned from a year and a half ago when I stepped in [to help coach] Donna Vekic was that a new voice can provide clarity,” she said. “The new voice for Coco Gauff was Brad Gilbert -- and look how that worked out. With the two Marks, it will be a fresh approach, a honeymoon really.”

The No.5 seeded Pegula takes on Anna Blinkova in a second-round match in Indian Wells. The American has won all three of their previous matches, but that last one -- eight days ago in the San Diego quarterfinals -- went three sets.

Blinkova beat Karolina Pliskova in the first round and upset World No.3 Elena Rybakina in the second round of the Australian Open in January.

Give Pegula credit for making a difficult decision, for deliberately stepping out of her comfort zone.

“I didn’t want to feel comfortable,” she said. “Maybe I was a little too comfortable and wasn’t getting pushed as much as I wanted to be. So I kind of wanted to change things up. Being uncomfortable makes you learn new things and pushes you in new directions and can be really helpful.

“It came naturally. Nothing happened bad. It was me just kind of starting a little bit of a new career.”