Jessica Pegula caught on video recording throwing shade at Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva
Tennis star Jessica Pegula appears to have been inadvertently caught on video footage criticising fellow players Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva. Pegula is currently preparing to feature in the WTA Finals, which takes place in Indian Wells, California, beginning on Sunday. Pegula, the World No.5, will face Gauff on Monday in her first group stage match and could take on Andreeva later in the tournament. A video has emerged on social media which appears to be a live stream of a practice session featuring Pegula, who was talking to her coach on the court.
In the video, Pegula could be heard talking about Andreeva and her coach, Conchita Martinez. Pegula appears to refer to Andreeva, who won the French Open earlier this year, as a “diva” who “needs to be humbled” and “put in her place.
Pegula could also be heard talking about Martinez, saying that the coach has been “nice to her”, but immediately went on to say that she has “lost a little respect for her.”
If I was a coach and my girl, you just played four great games, and you’re up four-zero, and you’re mad at me, hitting balls at me, I would be like, first of all, [that’s] disrespectful to the other person,” Pegula could be heard saying in the video.
“Conchita [Martinez], like pokes her [Andreeva] and like eggs on her behaviour.”
Pegula then went on to mention Gauff, claiming that if Andreeva had the World No.4’s “mentality”, then she would “be better than Coco.”
Pegula was recently outspoken after the US Open in September, where she suggested that men’s matches be reduced to the best of three sets, rather than five.
This suggestion came after a number of matches at Flushing Meadows went beyond midnight local time, including the quarter-final between Carlos Alcaraz and Blake Shelton.
“I don’t know what the solution is [to late finishes], honestly,” Pegula said on The Player’s Box podcast in September. “My theory with the five sets has always been that they should play best of five, perhaps, starting from the quarter-finals, but that would not have solved the problem of that night between Alcaraz and Shelton.”
She added: “I still think they should play best of three until the quarter-finals and then switch to best of five. But would that solve the problem? No.”
