Jessica Pegula has newfound focus in bid to end major wait at Australian Open

Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula is aiming to win the Australian Open (Image: Robert Prange/Getty Images)

Jessica Pegula is aiming for her first major singles title at the . The world no.6 made a significant change to her schedule last year in a bid to finally win a Grand Slam.

, 30, is an accomplished doubles player and previously teamed with US sensation . As a duo, they reached no.1 in the rankings and won five titles together, but a shock second-round exit at the Olympics last summer led both Pegula and Gauff to reconsider their doubles future.

In September, Pegula, , opted out of the doubles tournament but reached the singles final in New York. It was her best performance at a major event and Pegula had already admitted that she and Gauff had no immediate plans to reunite as both players targeted singles glory.

“For me, I’m not sure. I know Coco doesn’t really, isn’t interested in playing, or at least I’m not, we’re not thinking of playing, so I probably will take it easy on the doubles the rest of the year, so, yeah, we’ll see,” in August during her run to win the Canadian Open.

“I think I’ll just play maybe whenever I kind of want to,” Pegula added. “And maybe just focus on singles the rest of the year.”

This approach paid dividends for Pegula, who reached her first Grand Slam final a month later. With the new tennis season getting underway this month, the 30-year-old began by reaching the Adelaide International final and feels confident about her game as she aims to triumph at the .

Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff

Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff were a successful doubles team (Image: Getty)

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“I think the conditions suit my game, plays like medium fast, you know, the balls kind of fly through the air,” Pegula told . “So I think it just suits the way that I hit the ball, at least that’s what I think.

“I always feel very comfortable playing here and every time I come here, I feel like I can play some really good tennis every day at all the different tournaments in Australia. So I don’t know why that is, but sometimes there’s just places that you play good tennis. Here is one of them.”

Before last year, Pegula had reached three consecutive quarter-finals at the . On Monday, she advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Australia’s Maya Joint and will face Belgium’s Elise Mertens on Wednesday.

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