"You do freak out... I still have major anxiety" - Jessica Pegula lays bare the fear of falling behind amid injury struggles and return

Jessica Pegula recently laid bare her injury struggles, which forced her to miss the 2024 claycourt season. The American has now resumed her campaign on grass at the Libema Open.

Pegula had not played since April, her previous match being the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers clash against Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas. She missed the European clay swing after her rib injury was aggravated during her Qualifiers match.

Jessica Pegula reportedly struggled with breathing and sleeping as a result of the injury, which was later revealed to be cartilage irritation in her rib cage.

After winning her first match upon return at the Libema Open on Tuesday, the tournament’s top seed opened up about her recovery journey to the WTA. She said she decided to treat the issue as a stress fracture.

"The treatment for both of them is the same. So let's take the safe route, treat it like a stress fracture,” Pegula recalled her decision.

After spending two months recuperating, Jessica Pegula made a statement return with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Aliaksandra Sasnovich. The World No. 5 will face Aleksandra Krunic in the next round and expressed confidence in her form.

"I know in the long term I can play at a high level and I know I don't need to play those matches to feel like a top player," she said.

She, however, admitted to “freaking out” watching her colleagues do well at high-stakes events while she remained on the sidelines.

"But at the same time when you see all those people going ahead of you, you do freak out a little bit," Jessica Pegula confessed. "I still have major anxiety that I've missed so many WTA 1000s this year and I have a great record at 1000s."

Besides the claycourt WTA 1000 events, Pegula also missed the tournaments in Doha and Dubai due to a neck injury.

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Jessica Pegula: "I'm fully expecting to grind out the hard courts"

Jessica Pegula pictured at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships (Image Source: Getty)

Thankfully for Jessica Pegula, she earned a large chunk of her last year’s ranking points from the grasscourt season onwards. Explaining her decision to give clay a miss, Pegula told the WTA:

"It's just such a crazy year with the Olympics squeezed in. With my game, I'd rather be ready for grass and the rest of the hard-court season and grind out the rest of the year, than try and push it for clay and it doesn't feel well. That's why we played it safe."

As a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon, the American will need to defend 430 points in the upcoming edition. Titles in Montreal and Seoul, and runner-up trophies in Tokyo and at the WTA Finals were a few of her other significant runs in 2023. Notably, they account for 2565 of her 4625 ranking points.

Due to the upcoming Paris Olympics (July 26–August 11), though, the World No. 5’s title defense at the Canadian Open could very well be compromised. In that regard, Pegula said she is setting her sights on the Asian hardcourt swing, which commences after the US Open in September.

"I'm fully expecting to grind out the hard courts, especially in Asia after the US Open," the 30-year-old said. "I didn't have to do that so much the last few years, but I'll have to go in fresh and with an open mind that I have to grind a little bit, which is fine."