World No. 6 Jessica Pegula is gearing up to play her first round match of the Australian Open against Anastasia Zakharova at John Cain Arena on Monday. In preparation for the first Grand Slam of the year, Pegula decided to withdraw from the Adelaide International, where she had reached the finals last year after her semifinal loss to Marta Kostyuk in the Brisbane International.
Ahead of the opening-round match, Pegula addresses the media at a press conference, where she answered multiple tennis-related questions and one non-tennis-related question. A journalist asked the future billionaire heiress of the Buffalo Bills whether she was excited for the Bills vs. Broncos playoff match on Saturday night EST.
Responding to the same, Pegula first asked at what time the game would be telecast live in Melbourne, and then went on to exclaim that, although the team was a little beat up during the postseason, they had played an exceptional Wild Card game against the Jaguars on Sunday.
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Furthermore, she showered praise on Bills’ star quarterback Josh Allen for pulling up a strong performance all season long. “8:30, that’s not too bad. When I was in Brisbane I think it was after I lost right, I woke up at like 4:45 a.m so 8:30 is definitely not as early as that but yeah I’m excited to watch the game,” said Pegula.
“I mean, I love how it’s always on TV here, so it’s easy to watch, but I’m nervous, you know. We’ll see how it goes. I feel like we’re a little banged up, but I think everyone kind of is at this point in the playoffs, so we’ll see,” she added.
“But you know, I think Josh [Allen] is just incredible. He played unbelievably last game, and I think he’s just, if not one of the best players in the league right now, so I think when we have him, we’re always going to give ourselves a good shot, so hopefully we get the win,” Pegula concluded.
Jessica Pegula Elaborated on Her Experience in Brisbane and Why She Withdrew From Adelaide
While announcing her withdrawal from the Adelaide International, Pegula justified her decision, saying she didn’t want to aggravate any underlying injuries and wanted to focus solely on training for the Australian Open.
Previously in Brisbane, the American was twice spotted with a heavily taped left thigh during practice sessions, but ultimately won her matches later in those days. In the same press conference, she discussed why she withdrew from the Adelaide event and how she used that time to prepare for the first Grand Slam of the year.
“Yeah I just had a bit of a change of schedule just the way that it kind of panned out I kind of went to Brisbane not really a hundred percent but it was kind of one of those things where I felt like I needed to kind of play my way into getting over some of those little nagging things and just see how my body kind of dealt with everything,” said Pegula.
“I obviously have good memories there making the finals last time so that was a bit of a bummer because I do like playing there but at the same time I think just giving myself some time to actually recover and you know make sure nothing else pops up so that’s kind of what I’ve been doing this week and been able to to get a lot of really good practice in and yeah so far so good,” she concluded.
The former US Open and WTA Finals finalist will be aiming to start her quest at Melbourne Park with a dominant win against Zakharova.
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