On the changeover, Mark Merklein, who co-coaches Pegula, could be seen on the broadcast exhorting his frustrated employer to, “Use the slice sometimes, too much one-speed. She’s loving that.”
It was clear from Pegula’s reaction that she didn’t love the idea. Mixing up the pace that way isn’t her preferred tactic. It would take her out of her comfort zone.
Pegula’s outstanding liability is her serve, particularly her second serve. She is vulnerable to aggressive returners, among whom Sabalenka is a paragon. In their US Open final, Pegula won just 21% of her second-serve points. Analysts have suggested various ways to mitigate that vulnerability, from hitting heavier spin or off-speed first serves. When Pegula tried that, it was already too little, too late.
“Yeah, the serve. . . I started mixing in a lot more kick serves, which I think helped, but it was kind of a little bit too late,” Pegula said after the match, admitting that she might have done that earlier in the first set instead of waiting, or until she was down 0-30 or 0-40. “Maybe that would have helped me put more pressure on her in those return games, and take some pressure off of me not having to come back from 0-40.”
