Jessica Pegula advanced to the final of the 2026 Cincinnati Open following a thrilling win over defending champion Iga Swiatek.
Down 1-3 in the third set, Pegula fought back to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 during their two-hour and 47-minute showdown. Next up, Pegula (No. 3) must defeat Coco Gauff (No.4) to hoist the Rookwood Cup at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Sunday, August 23.
Pegula reached the Cincinnati Open final in 2024, but lost to World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets. A win in Mason, Ohio, boosts Pegula’s chances of possibly usurping the No. 1 spot depending on how things shake out at the US Open.
GettyJessica Pegula plays against Iga Swiatek at the 2026 Cincinnati Open.
While the 32-year-old is focused on her 9th WTA 1000 final, Pegula celebrated a personal milestone during her tournament run in Ohio.
Jessica Pegula Celebrated the 1st Anniversary of Her Podcast
Pegula, along with fellow American tennis stars Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk, launched “The Player’s Box” podcast one year ago. Just before her showdown against Swiatek, she raised a tiny trophy to celebrate the occasion and accept the Best Podcast on Tour award.
Pegula accepted the award by joking that they are the “only” podcast on tour.
It all started with a group chat. “Somebody would say something funny in the chat or something funny would happen, or something crazy would happen at a tournament,” Brady told WTA Tennis in February. “It would be like, ‘Wow, if only people knew about this or if we could share this on a podcast.'”
Keys added, “We finally just said, ‘Screw it. We’ll start it. We’ll do a trial. We’ll see if we’re any good. We’ll see if we like it.’ We ended up really enjoying it, and it seemed like fans quite enjoy it as well, so we’ve just kind of run with it.”
The podcast currently boasts over 45,000 subscribers on YouTube. In addition to working with a production team to develop and edit each episode, “We’ve learned how to designate who’s good at what things, what parts, being a little bit more structured, and how the episode is going to go, who’s talking about what things,” Pegula said.
Jessica Pegula, Daughter of Billionaire Terry Pegula, Finds the Podcast ‘Really Fun’
Pegula is from a famous family worth $9.3 billion, according to Forbes. While the tennis star doesn’t need to do extra work, she loves filming “The Players Podcast.”
“It’s really fun — as long as we can find some time,” Pegula told the Cincinnati Open before the tournament began.
“We just filmed last night, and we were like, ‘All right, we’ve got to film!’ We get together and plan it out, and it’s always fun and therapeutic. Now we’re in such a good rhythm with it that we know it’s only going to take maybe an hour. And our team behind the scenes, our producer and editor, are so good at being flexible that they’re ready to film whenever. They make it really efficient for us with our rundowns and what we’re going to talk about. It never really drags on.”
Jessica Pegula Celebrates Exciting Milestone at Cincinnati Open