5 Things I Learned Watching Jessica Pegula And Desirae Krawczyk At The Charleston Open

This past week I got to host thirty doubles players in my Charleston doubles camps in the morning, and then I got to head over and help Coach Desiree Krabczek in the WTA five hundred Credit One Charleston Open in the afternoon. And when I wasn't busy coaching, I got a front row seat to watch Jessie Pagula go back to back and win her second WTA five hundred event in Charleston.

So, what a week. I got to help out my players in the morning from all over the country, and I got to watch two friends win WTA events in the afternoon. Just a quick backstory for those who don't know and we'll start with Des. I met her when I was coaching at Duke about eight years ago. She was in town training for a year or two in Durham and we became good friends.

When I was seventeen years old, Jesse's family took me on as a host family at our academy, and I lived with them for two years, and then would come back and stay with them in the summers when I practiced and coached at Smithsuring's tendency academy. I've known Jess for almost 25 years, and it's unbelievably fun to watch her career take off over the last five to six years.

So when you get a chance to watch world-class players up close and spend a little time behind the scenes, you learn a lot. And I certainly did this week. So I decided to put my normal pod on hold and share some things I learned over the past seven days. The first thing I learned or was reminded of was you never know what's behind an ugly win, and in this case, two to three ugly wins.

I can't remember who quoted this on the podcast a few years ago, but I was thinking about it all week. Jesse won her first round match against Yulia Putinseva four six six four seven five. She was down two oh in the third set. She looked uncomfortable transitioning from hard to clay courts on short notice. Putin Seva had a ton of variety, lots of high balls, lots of drop shots. It was an absolute nightmare, especially when you aren't feeling great like Jess.

Jess has been serving Unreal this year. And as a side note, she's been working on improving her serve over the last two years. And she told me she's finally starting to get it. So if you're upset that you haven't figured your serve out after a week of lessons or clinics, maybe realize that it takes the best player in the world two years with elite coaching to sometimes get it done. Just a little perspective.

That being said, she did serve horribly in this match, so it was ugly, grimy, uncomfortable. And guess what? Jess does what she always does and fought like crazy, got solid at the big moments, and won a close match. Next round she played Cachoretto and lost the first set one six, and she ended up winning six in the third.

She was serving four or five love 30 in the third set. Again, far, far, far from her best tennis. But she stuck around and she battled. And then after surviving these two scares, she slowly started to play better match to match. She beat Diana Schneider in three sets the following round, but the third set was actually pretty good quality. Then she beat Eva Yovich in the semifinals in three sets, and the serve was improving and she had pockets of great play.

And then she got to the finals and everything clicked. She served well. She moved well. She returned well. She was able to take balls early and control the points and apply a ton of pressure on her opponent. And she ends up being one of three players to ever repeat at the Charleston Open with Serena Williams and Chris Everton. And again, how did that all start? With two below average performances where she had to survive and fight and battle through frustration.

A lot of players get so focused on how poorly they feel in these tough matches, they panic and they stop competing. But if you can lock in mentally and try to fight through it, you can get a few results, build some confidence and character, and then once your game comes back and you feel good, you can start mowing opponents down.

The second thing I learned or was reminded of was that having a lead is not the same thing as winning. And I'm throwing up air quotes for A lot of times when someone asks a score, people instinctively say someone is winning 7-5-3-1. When what they actually mean is they're leading 7-5-3-1. They haven't won anything yet.

And just because you're leading doesn't mean you're guaranteed to win. Otherwise, we'd all turn the TVs off after the first set of every tennis match or the first half of every football game because surely the team that's always ahead will always win, right? Of course not. But that's sometimes the trap we fall into. Because when we win the first set, or maybe because we're even up a break, we assume that we should win and it should be smooth sailing closing it out.

In the quarterfinals, Dez played with Katie McNally, and they played the number one seeds and got out to a 5 0 lead and won the first set 6 1. They then built a 4-2 lead, served for the match at 5-4, and then had to serve for the match again at 6-5 before closing it out 7-5. Nerves were definitely high on both ends, and certainly for me sitting quartzide.

All that being said, that's normal, and that's what I try to remind myself in those situations. It's not supposed to be easy with a lead. In fact, it can be even more difficult at times with perceived pressure in the anticipation of a win. One of the worst things that can happen in a match is panic, being surprised by any event, and suffering some adversity when you're ahead should not be a shocker at all. It's normal and you need to have a plan for when this happens.

I thought in that particular match, Dez and Katie did a great job of just continuing to play without judgment or without focusing on missing their first chance to close out the match. And that paid huge dividends as they played a fantastic 6-5 game to advance to the semi-sign.

The third thing I certainly didn't learn, but I got to confirm my belief with even more data, was that controlling the middle in doubles is everything. All week long in my camp we talked about the footwork and timing of pinching and poaching.

We talked about the four best times to poach, which I'll remind you real quickly right now for the 47th time on this podcast. The number one best time to poach is early in the match because usually people just start with a simple cross court return. And so you want to be The second best time to poach is early in the point for exactly the same reason. Most people will take their first ball cross.

The third best time to poach is when the score is close because usually people get nervous and they will go through the middle or to a simple target, and that's where you want. And the fourth best time to poach is right after someone burns you down the line. Usually they will think they've taught you a lesson and go cross court on the And just for the record, I saw this happen so many times in my camp. And I saw this happening while watching all of Des matches at the WTA.

Most returns and plus ones went cross-court. On most big points, returns and plus ones went cross-court. And Dez did an amazing job in the final of having the courage to poach early and often, which is why they were able to cruise to a 6-3-6-2 win in the final. They got down 2 0 playing a little tight and then won 6 3, winning 5 of the next six games.

Both Des and Katie were moving everywhere during that stretch. It's where the action is in the middle of the court. You have to be willing to get beat down the line, which Katie and Dez both did, especially early. You have to be willing to hit some horrible volleys, which Katie and Des both did as well. But the rewards far outweigh the negatives of being aggressive at the net. And in a final when both teams were a bit nervous with so much at stake,

Having the courage and conviction to move confidently at the net was absolutely the The fourth thing I want to share is that 90% of what I coach in my doubles camps would apply to the players on the WTA tour. One of the things that always surprises me is when a 3-5 asks me what they need to do to become a 4-0. They'll ask if it's different strategy, need to start going for more, or need to add a bunch of different things to their game.

Most of the tactics and ideas that I teach in my camps are exactly what I would teach a WTA player if I actually coached on the tour full-time. The difference is a 3-5 player hits the ball 30 miles an hour and a pro hits the ball 70 miles an hour. That's the main difference, but the positioning, the timing, the tactics, I actually think they scale to almost every level.

And the last thing I learned this past week was from the players who attended my camp. We had 15 men and 15 women over the six days working on pinching, poaching, reading lobs, using different formations, and playing simple from the baseline. Before each camp, I do a FaceTime with each player, trying to get a feel for their game, what their goals are, and how I can help them specifically for each camp. A vast majority of players will tell me they want to get better at the net.

Learn how to poach better, better volley technique, or just building their overall awareness and confidence with their net play. And when I see them in person, there's definitely a lot to work on, and we certainly focus on that process in the camp quite a bit. However, I rarely have doubles players tell me they need to work on their baseline tactics. And when I watch both my campers and the pro players, I think we need to make sure we still focus on baseline tactics.

Just a friendly reminder, and if the people who have attended my camps this year are listening, they will know. Objective number one from the baseline is always for the rest of eternity to make the ball. Your second objective is to set up your partner at the next.

And your third objective is to avoid your opponent who is at the net. I find with great regularity at all levels, pro and amateur, that players are obsessed with objectives two and three and a lot of times completely forget about objective number one. Balls in play are absolutely massive and it wins at all. In Des' first round match against Gurachi and Sophia Kennan, they were up seven six, four two, forty-fifteen serving, and Kennan hit one of the worst lobs I've ever seen.

Katie let it bounce, stepped up, and pounded the overhead directly into the bottom of the net. She's a world-class player with an amazing net game who was playing so well she won a WTA event, and even she is capable of missing what's perceived to be an easy shot. So imagine what I'm thinking when the four-o players in my camp.

Tries to hit an all-world passing shot because they think of course the other four-o will always finish and hit a winner on an easy ball. Hitting winners is hard, being consistent wins matches. So it was an incredible week for me, so fun to see my friends have amazing success on the court, and arguably more fun to meet the 30 motivated players at my doubles camp.

I want to thank ADV for providing the gift bags over my last three camps in New York City, Indian Wells, and here in my hometown, Charlie. They elevated the camps over the last year, and I'm so incredibly grateful to partner with such an incredible brand. I had a few players stop me walking around with the Volt Back at the WTA site because they liked it so much. So click on the link in the show notes if you're interested in checking out their opportunities.

I'm also in the process of a few exciting projects. Number one, I'm finalizing the dates and times for my New York City doubles camp before the US Open. I've had a ton of players message me online about the registration process, so look for that in the next week.

I'm also currently working on creating an online community where I can coach you all in doubles on a regular basis. I'll have video courses, live QA with me, live match reviews, and other great offers. My goal is to help as many players as I can, and I'm really excited about that. The goal is to have all that ready by the end of April. And last but not least, I had a ton of players stop me at the Charleston Open to tell me they listened to podcasts and let me know that it's helped their game.

This means absolutely everything to me. And if you ever see me at a future event, please stop and say hi. Meeting you all, the listeners, is why I do this podcast. Thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved at tennis without even hitting me.