Editor’s note: Starting Monday, Oct. 20, we’re publishing Road to the WTA Finals, an eight-part snapshot of the qualifiers and the form they bring to Riyadh. Check back all week for new installments.

More from the WTA Finals

Since breaking into the Top 10 for the first time in 2022 at age 28, Jessica Pegula has never left.

Staying among the sport’s elite isn’t about the occasional title or a brief surge of form — it requires sustained output week after week, across surfaces, time zones and continents.

Pegula, 31, the elder stateswoman among the WTA Finals qualifiers, has done that again in 2025. She’s played 22 tournaments — the most of any player in this field — and 69 matches, the third-most behind Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.

She’s won 50 of those, with a hard-court title in Austin, a clay-court title in Charleston and a grass-court title in Bad Homburg. And after a slow summer, the American returned to New York, where she made her lone major final the year prior, and roared back to the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Sabalenka in three sets.

Champions Reel: How Jessica Pegula won Austin 2025

She carried that momentum into Asia, winning eight of 10 matches to reach the semifinals in Beijing and the final in Wuhan (and exacting some revenge on Sabalenka in the process).

Speaking of grinding, of those 10 matches, eight went three sets. Pegula won seven of them, her ability to outwork and outlast on full display.

Another season, another grind, another Top 10 finish. Like clockwork.

Pegula’s 2025 Season By the Numbers

2025 Record: 50-19

2025 Titles (3): Austin (250), Charleston (500), Bad Homburg (500)

Previous WTA Finals Appearances: 2022 (lost in group stage), 2023 (lost in final), 2024 (lost in group stage)

Best WTA Finals Result: After a lackluster WTA Finals debut in 2022, where she lost all three matches she played, Pegula looked unbeatable in Cancun in 2023. After taking out Maria Sakkari in her opening match, she upset Elena Rybakina, Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, all in straight sets and with relative ease. But she ran into a buzzsaw in the final, winning just one game against a dominant Swiatek.

Defining moment of 2025: Pegula’s season didn’t hinge on a single trophy. She didn’t capture a Grand Slam or WTA 1000 title, though she came within a match in Miami, falling to Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Her three titles were important markers, but her year was defined in New York. After a frustrating run at the majors earlier in the season, Pegula found her best tennis at the US Open, powering into the semifinals without dropping a set. She pushed Sabalenka to a deciding set under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium, a reminder — despite the 6–4 loss — that she remains in the sport’s top tier and a legitimate threat to win a major.

Notable Stat: How’s this for consistency? With her run to the Wuhan final, Pegula has now reached the quarterfinals or better at all 10 WTA 1000 events on the calendar.

The only other active players to accomplish that feat are Sabalenka and Rybakina.

Defining Quote of 2025: “I’m one of the top players in the world. I always feel I can go out and I can beat these girls. Even though I maybe don’t have the massive weapon that some of them have or the flashiness that some of them have, I feel like I’m always right there every time I play them.” — Pegula after her 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss to Sabalenka in the US Open semifinals

What This Title Would Mean (+ What to Watch for in Riyadh)

Brad Kallet: Simply put, this would be the biggest title of Pegula’s career. She made the final back in 2023, but had a rough go in Riyadh last year, failing to win a set against Barbora Krejcikova or Gauff. Though a major has eluded her, winning the WTA Finals would give her the signature title she needs to complement what’s been a remarkably consistent and productive career.

How will her stamina be? I don’t worry too much about Pegula running out of gas — she knows her body — but she has played a lot of tennis this year, especially this month. Something to keep an eye on, especially in a tournament where every match is against a top player.

Greg Garber: If we’ve learned anything about Pegula, it’s that she’s a student of the game. She’s smart and applies strategy as well as any player out there, and that was abundantly evident in the crazy win over Sabalenka in Wuhan.

After losing six straight Grand Slam quarterfinals, Pegula broke through and got to the finals at the US Open last year. After finishing the 2020 season ranked No. 62, she improved to No. 18 in 2021. Since then, it’s been four consecutive year-end Top 10 finishes, at an age when some players are already weighing retirement.

The 31-year-old Pegula will go to school on last year’s disappointment in Riyadh and come up with a solution.