The 28-year-old American tennis star casually sipped from a can of beer during her post-match press conference following a gutting 3-6, 6-7 (4-7) US Open quarterfinal loss to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek Wednesday evening.
When Pegula first lifted the Heineken into view, ESPN reporter D’Arcy Maine commented on the beverage before asking her prepared question. The otherwise dejected Buffalo, New York, native perked up a bit, replying that she was hydrating because she needed “to pee for doping.”
“Although it does help ease the loss,” Pegula added with a smirk.
Her defeat Wednesday was a particularly tough one to swallow. After going up an early break, Pegula struggled with her serve and dropped four consecutive games to lose the opening set.
“I started missing everything for literally the rest of the set,” Pegula said. “It was definitely a huge momentum change.”
“Next thing I knew, I lost the set 6-3,” she added.
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She and Swiatek exchanged breaks throughout the second set, but with the score knotted at four games apiece, Pegula looked poised to disrupt the trend and potentially force a decisive third set. She fought her way back from a 0-30 hole to take a 40-30, but Swiatek ripped a cross-court backhand winner to even the score.
That’s when luck — and her serve — drastically turned against her. Pegula lost the seventh point of the game on a double-fault, then lost the final point after 20 rallies culminated in a Swiatek forehand ricocheting off the net and dribbling meekly onto her side of the court.
The 21-year-old Polish sensation held her hand up apologetically on the walk back to her player bench.
Swiatek won the set — and, as a result, the match — in a tiebreak, handing Pegula her third loss in a Grand Slam quarterfinal this year. And though she acknowledged during the press conference that she “had a great year at the slams,” she was undoubtedly frustrated with her finish in New York.
“I go back and forth,” Pegula said in the presser. “Oh, I should be positive. At the same time, I’m like, fuck, three quarterfinals. Sorry, but it sucks. It sucks.”
“I wish I could have done it here at my home slam, but I guess not,” she added. “I wish I didn’t have to play Iga [Swiatek] every quarterfinal or Ash Barty, which seem to be the two people that don’t really lose that often. So it just sucks.”