Fifth-ranked American tennis player Jessica Pegula spoke about the mindset behind her dominant double-bagel victory. In the third round of the tournament, she defeated Rebeka Masarova 6:0, 6:0.
“When you win the first set 6:0, you immediately think: ‘Don’t relax under any circumstances,’ because everything can change very quickly. Sometimes the opponent relaxes, goes to the bathroom, decides it can’t get any worse, and starts playing better. So such situations don’t happen very often.
I kept thinking: ‘Win one more game, then another, and don’t give her any chance.’ On clay, you can never leave anything to chance — suddenly a couple of bad bounces, a double fault, the opponent finds a rhythm, and the break comes back instantly. Here in Rome, I’ve seen tons of matches like that. At one point she smiled at me at the net and said: ‘That was brutal.’ I found it funny when I realized it. But if you ask any player on tour, everyone would accept such a victory,” Pegula said at the press conference.
