Why Pegula did emergency crunches on a bathroom floor during US Open quarters

Champions do whatever it takes to win, right?

Even if that means doing emergency crunches on a bathroom floor.

That’s exactly what World No. 7 Jessica Pegula did halfway through her quarterfinal win over Barbora Krejcikova at the US Open.

As she explained on The Player’s Box podcast — which she hosts alongside Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk — Pegula has been dealing with sacroiliac joint issues since Wimbledon, and it cropped up when she was up 4-3 in the first set.

After closing it out 6-3, the 31-year-old took a bathroom break — which she never does — threw some towels on the bathroom floor in Arthur Ashe Stadium and began knocking out crunches and core exercises to unlock her back.

“I needed to lay down on the floor and do some core exercises because my back was spasming up,” Pegula explained. “It wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t play, but I was like, ‘Oh s***!’ So I did core and glute activation stuff.”

The crunches proved effective, because Pegula returned to Ashe — the world not knowing she had been lying on a bathroom floor moments earlier — and took the second set 6-3 to advance to the semifinals.

“After, my coaches were like, ‘We were wondering if you were OK, if you ate something or something was wrong,'” Pegula said. “I was like, ‘No, my back just really locked up on me and I had to do some core.'”

Pegula gave eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka a run for her money in the semis, taking the first set, but lost the next two in what was still a highly productive fortnight in New York.

The American will be representing the United States this week at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen, China. She’ll then play the WTA 1000 China Open, in Beijing, next week, and is scheduled to play the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open in October.