Usually tight-lipped about her family, the Buffalo native made another reveal in our conversation, when I asked her about HBO’s latest season of Hard Knocks, featuring her beloved Bills.
“People say my dad’s in it a lot—he’s pretty funny, which is true,” Pegula says with a laugh. “Maybe that’s kind of why I don’t want to watch, because it’s like, a little embarrassing.”
If Pegula is to overcome Sabalenka, the US Open would be a fitting venue. It was here, last year, that she snapped a six-match losing streak in Grand Slam singles quarterfinals. She also did that against a world No. 1, Swiatek.
“She embraced it, right?” Knowles tells me after a Pegula practice at Indian Wells, referencing the pressure-filled moment. “She hadn’t gotten past the quarterfinal stage—which, by the way, millions of players would sign up for. The win over Iga was obviously super important, bright lights in New York City, trying to get over that hump.”
Pegula followed that with another breakthrough result, over Karolina Muchova in the semis. Victory seemed improbable when Pegula trailed 6-1, 2-0, and faced break point. But out of position, she got her racquet on a Muchova forehand with a running defensive stab, and the Czech overcooked the volley long. It was the match’s clear turning point.
“For me, that was probably a greater victory, because that showed true adversity,” Knowles recalls. “As I told her the minute she walked off the court—and I’ve been around a long time—99 percent of players would have just said, my run’s come to an end.
“She was able to dig deep. She’s a tenacious player, but she’s an incredible fighter.”
