A quintessential late bloomer, Jessica Pegula didn’t crack the Top 100 until 2019. She was 25 at the time, and 10 years removed from her first match as a professional. She’d been through serious injuries, doubts, false starts and frustrations.

Since 2019, everything good in Pegula’s game – and her mind – has coalesced, allowing her to become one of the WTA’s elite players. She cracked the Top 50 in 2021, the Top 20 in 2022, and the Top 10 after Roland Garros that same year.

These days, she’s a card-carrying member of the WTA’s Top 5 and a Grand Slam finalist.

Even better? The 32-year-old Buffalo, NY native is still improving her tennis.

Ahead of her quarterfinal against No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina in Tennis Paradise, Pegula talked about being a student of the game.

“I think right now I'm just very open to learning. I'm always very open to trying new things. I think one of the strengths I have as an athlete is probably being able to change something and implement it very quickly,” she said.

At this stage of her career, Pegula says she is constantly “Watching other players, watching what players do really well, and trying to implement certain things into my game and seeing if I can do the same thing.”

Nearly three years since her initial foray into the Top 10, Pegula is now the oldest player in that elite group. But age is just a number; any degradation caused by time is currently being negated by Pegula’s curiosity and refreshing perspective.

The American refuses to let her game grow stale, and she’s perpetually adaptable – two qualities that make her a threat to go deep in any draw.

“I’m not afraid to fail and try different things, whether it's with my serve or my forehand or my slice or different strategies,” Pegula insists.

“I think that, in a way, has kept my brain always working and problem-solving. That's just how I play my best tennis, that's how I feel like I'm getting better, that's how I enjoy playing tennis. I always want to feel like I'm learning and I'm trying things.”

Pegula adds that the fact that she wasn’t on tour all that much between the ages of 20 and 24 due to injuries has helped her feel fresh. 

She’s reached seven consecutive quarterfinals, a streak dating back to last year’s US Open, and recently won a WTA 1000 title in Dubai that featured a pair of Top 10 wins.

Success for Pegula means always angling for more success. That’s why she stays open to change, switched-on to learn, and fired-up to keep rising.

“I never want to feel like when I retire that I wish I would have tried this on my serve or this string on this racquet, or whatever the case may be,” she said. “I think that's probably my strength as a player and just how I kind of look at my career and how I'm still improving, even at my age.”