NEW YORK — “If I had the chance to run away before I walked on the field, I probably would have done it.”
Kim Clijsters talks about how she felt before her first Grand Slam final at the French Open 23 years ago, as she prepared to face Jennifer Capriati. Capriati had won the Australian Open that year in what was also her first Grand Slam final.
On Saturday night, Jessica Pegula will have to overcome similar feelings as she prepares for her first final: the US Open, her home Grand Slam, against Aryna Sabalenka, who has already played in three major finals and won two.
Clijsters had just turned 18 and attributed much of the anxiety she felt to her inexperience. Pegula, in tennis terms, is at the other end of the spectrum — at 30, she is the oldest first-time Grand Slam finalist since 33-year-old Flavia Pennetta, who defeated compatriot Roberta Vinci to win the title in New York in 2015.
Kim Clijsters lost to Jennifer Capriati in her first Grand Slam final. She would go on to win four majors in her career (Clive Brunskill/Allsport)
That can help Pegula, but it can also hinder her. Either way, nothing can fully prepare a player for the first major final.
“There are extra nerves and emotions that you’ve never experienced before,” Clijsters said in an interview at Wimbledon.
“It’s the reason I lost my first four Slam finals. I couldn’t handle the pressure of seeing the trophy and thinking this is something I’ve wanted my whole life.”
Clijsters lost to Capriati, as she describes it, and gave the American her second title of 2001.
There is perhaps no better player for Pegula to learn from in this regard. Clijsters retired from tennis in 2007, at age 23, burned out by competition and battling multiple injuries. When she returned to the sport, the scene of her greatest comeback triumph was the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where she entered the 2009 US Open as an unranked player and won the entire tournament.
On Thursday night, Pegula was relaxed about how she would prepare for the biggest match of her life after beating Karolina Muchova in a three-set semifinal that hinged on a missed volley by Muchova, who would have gone 6-1, 3-0 up had she made it. Pegula, the world No. 6, was coy about whether she would seek advice from players who have been in that position.
“We’ll see who messages me tonight and tomorrow. Maybe if a good name comes along, I can pick their brains a little bit.
“Maybe I’m just taking a chance.”
Although her opponent, Sabalenka, had been there before, she was nervous when she lost the first set to Elena Rybakina in last year’s Australian Open final. Eventually, the Belarusian and current world No. 2 calmed down the match before coming back to win in three sets. In contrast, Sabalenka looked to have her first US Open final under control when she took the first set 6-2 against Coco Gauff. Instead, she succumbed to Gauff’s resilience and a home crowd of 24,000, surrendering a title she had held in another three-set final.
There are also more nuanced symmetries between the two finalists. Sabalenka needed four attempts to win a Grand Slam semifinal, while Pegula won her first major quarterfinal on Wednesday after losing her first six.
After such a breakthrough victory, a player can often go one of two ways. They are freed up and can play freely in the next game, or they are a little less focused after the emotional setback of finally scoring a goal.
Pegula kept pace with the latter in the first set of her semi-final against Muchova, 24 hours after her historic victory over world number 1 Iga Swiatek.
In her on-court interview, Pegula said Muchova “made me look like a beginner, I was about to burst into tears.”
GALLING DEEPER
Jessica Pegula beats Karolina Muchova in thrilling match to reach US Open final
She later admitted that she had actually been too relaxed for the match against Muchova, meaning she lacked some of the nervous tension she felt before the match against Swiatek.
“It was weird,” Pegula said. “I feel like before the match with Iga I was a lot more nervous and today I was just, like, ‘Whatever’.
“Maybe that was bad, because I came out super flat. I was clearly a bit too loose.”
Jessica Pegula has reached her first Grand Slam final in the same tournament as her first Grand Slam semifinal (Getty Images)
It’s a tricky balance to strike. Sabalenka has often gone too far the other way — in last year’s final against Gauff, she was clearly stressed by the patriotic crowd. She seemed similarly fired up at the end of the second set in Thursday’s semifinal against Emma Navarro, when she was broken before serving for the match.
How she handles the decidedly pro-Pegula atmosphere on Saturday could be decisive, but she did well against Navarro, using the variety she has built into her game in recent months to pull herself over the line.
Sabalenka leads the head-to-head against Pegula 5-2 and when they met in Cincinnati a few weeks ago, Sabalenka was a straight-sets winner. She is also on a streak of 11 consecutive match wins, dropping just one set, and at Grand Slam level, Sabalenka has won 26 of her last 27 hard-court matches.
This is a surface that suits Pegula, too, as she indicated in a press conference earlier this week. She comes into the match having won 15 of her 16 matches during the summer hardcourt swing. Sabalenka has the best weapons, so Pegula will have to use her athleticism to get enough of her opponent’s mistakes and get her into the mindset that can derail her game. She doesn’t let that happen very often now.
When the subject of her quarterfinal defeat was put to her, Pegula often said that she could only stay in a position to win them, and that is where Clijsters’ thoughts turn when she reflects on her Grand Slam history. The Belgian has won three US Open titles and four Grand Slam titles in total, despite all the nerves she felt before facing Capriati in Paris. Winning a major title, she believes, ultimately represents just like any other aspect of tennis, whether that is winning a final or simply being there to play one.
Kim Clijsters won the US Open in 2009, four years after her first. She would retain the title in 2010 (Emanuele Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)
“You can’t practice that on a practice court, it’s not like a serve out wide. Or a return,” she said.
“The only thing that can help you deal with it better is experience and putting yourself in that position again and again to get here.”
Pegula can’t suddenly recall experiences from matches like Saturday’s, but trusting that other opportunities can still arise, even if she loses, can help ease the pressure. Ultimately, Clijsters believes that losing her first final was the best way things could have gone. The consequences of winning, while nice, would have been too much to handle.
“I was almost too young for what that could mean,” she said.
“It would have happened too fast. It would have happened too quickly and it would have been difficult to deal with a lot of the consequences that come with it.”
Can Pegula handle the moment? Can Sabalenka handle the crowd? On Saturday, they, and the rest of the tennis world, will find out.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
