DOHA: Jessica Pegula, the WTA No. 4 in singles and doubles, spent long hours on her keyboard in January, writing about her mother Kim, who suffered a cardiac arrest which resulted in a brain injury.
The 28-year-old sketched the stress and strain her family weathered in the last 8-months in an essay for The Players’ Tribune titled ‘I Want To Talk To You About My Mom’.
On the sidelines of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, Pegula said that while she doesn’t journal regularly, she finds the process therapeutic. Pegula, who finished 2022 as the highest ranked American at a career-best No.3 in singles, is a stately force in the women’s game.
Her parents – Terrence (billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer) and Kim – are principal owners of the NFL side Buffalo Bills and National Hockey League team
Buffalo Sabres.
“I’ve never actually sat down and seriously written something like that where I knew I was going to send it out,” Pegula said at the Khalifa International Complex.
“I decided I wanted to write something and put it out there in the first week of the Australian Open. One night it was like 2 a.m. and I couldn’t sleep, I was like I’m just going to write this. I opened up a Word document and wrote it.
“Journaling is great. Especially when you’re on the road and it can get hard. Sometimes I just like to do gratitude journals where I will write down something I’m grateful for or I’ll write down anything positive or negative just to get it out.
“It’s therapeutic. And the same thing for writing that letter,” she said. “Writing is something I enjoy. Maybe one day I will do more.”
Pegula’s doubles partner Coco Gauff has been journaling since the age of seven.
“I don’t ever force myself to write. It’s when I feel it,” Gauff said.
