MELBOURNE -- Jessica Pegula woke up Monday morning and immediately grabbed her cell phone. While the World No.6 was sleeping soundly on the eve of her Australian Open start, her phone was blowing up. 

That's what happens when you're on the other side of the world while the Buffalo Bills are in the early stages of the NFL playoffs. It's a credit to the team's consistency that this is no longer a unique experience for Pegula. The Bills have finished the regular season as AFC East champions for the past five years. 

On Sunday in New York, the Bills dominated the Denver Broncos 31-7 to advance to the Divisional Round for the fifth year running. 

"It was on really early so I slept in," Pegula said. "So I didn't see one play, literally, until it was on in the gym when I was warming up. 

"Got some updates from my family and texts. Woke up and knew immediately who won from the first text."

Must See

Pegula's peaceful sleep paid off. She needed just 59 minutes to race past Australian wild card Maya Joint 6-3, 6-0 in the first round. Coming off a near-perfect week at the Adelaide International, where she made her fifth final in the last six months, Pegula patiently felt out her unfamiliar opponent before reeling off the last eight games of the match. 

Pegula may have reached her best Grand Slam result in her home state (US Open final last fall), but the Australian Open remains her most consistently successful major. In her five main-draw appearances she has made the quarterfinals three times. The only two glitches came with a first-round exit in her tournament debut in 2020 and last year, where a stint of burnout contributed to a second-round exit to Clara Burel.

But after missing a majority of the first half of last year with injuries, Pegula has been back to her consistent ways. She re-established herself as one of the premier hard-court threats last summer, where she tore through the North American summer to win her third WTA 1000 title in Toronto, make the Cincinnati final the following week, and then storm her way into her first major final in New York. 

Now she goes into the next six months with nothing but opportunity. Pegula is defending just 685 points until the grass season. The opportunity to push back into the Top 5 on the PIF WTA Rankings, she concedes, remains a motivating factor. 

"Even though that's not necessarily my whole priority anymore, rankings or points, at the same time that's kind of why I decided if I push it too early and set myself back, I knew that I didn't have a lot of points," Pegula said.

"I wanted to be really healthy for especially the first half of the year because I don't have a lot of points to defend. Obviously the second half I have a lot more. I wanted to make sure I felt good after this and that kind of whole swing, Indian Wells, Miami, Middle East, which I skipped, and the clay season I skipped, too. Definitely something I think about."

That Pegula is even in the hunt for a return to the Top 5 serves as a reminder that she belongs.

"It's a nice reminder that even if things aren't going perfectly that you can still have good results and turn it around," Pegula said. "Last year was definitely a way more up-and-down year than I had the few years before where it felt like I was playing all the time and having decent results all the time.

"It was a challenge, but a nice reminder that I'm still a top player, can have great results. Obviously being healthy helps, but I don't need to play all the time to have that confidence."

Pegula will face another of last week's finalists in the second round -- Hobart runner-up Elise Mertens, who defeated qualifier Viktorija Golubic 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4. The Belgian saved two match points in the second-set tiebreak en route to ending Golubic's 15-match winning streak, which dated back to her Jiujiang title last October. Pegula has yet to beat Mertens, the 2018 Australian Open semifinalist, in three previous meetings.

Head to Head

-

elise mertens
  • Sorry, we couldn't find any players that match your search.

BEL
More Head to Head

100% Win 3
- Matches Played

0% Win 0

-

jessica pegula
  • Sorry, we couldn't find any players that match your search.

USA

More notable Day 2 results in Melbourne:

  • Marketa Vondrousova withdrew ahead of her opener due to the leg injury sustained last week at the Adelaide International. Harriet Dart replaced her in the draw as a lucky loser and beat Jana Fett 7-5, 2-6, 7-6[7], saving two match points in the third set.
  • Lucia Bronzetti ousted two-time champion and 21st-seed Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 7-6(2).
  • 28th-seed Elina Svitolina moved past Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-4 and will face Caroline Dolehide in Round 2.
  • Rebecca Sramkova will face No.2 seed Iga Swiatek in the second round after coming back to beat Katie Volynets 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
  • 2024 quarterfinalist Marta Kostyuk needed three sets to hold off Nao Hibino 3-6l 6-3, 6-1 and will face Germany's Jule Niemeier in the second round. Niemeier dropped just one game to Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska, advancing 6-0, 6-1.