Jessica Pegula referred to compatriot Frances Tiafoe's iconic 'locked-in' comment ahead of her and Taylor Fritz's US Open finals against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and World No.1 Jannik Sinner, respectively. Pegula and Fritz's achievement marked the first time a US man and woman have advanced to the US Open singles final since 2002
At the first edition of the United Cup in 2023, the US quartet of Frances Tiafoe Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, and Taylor Fritz achieved victory over the Italian team with a clean sweep of 4-0. After Team USA's success at the United Cup, the international hard-court mixed-gender team competition, they then headed to the 2023 Australian Open.
During their time in Sydney, the quartet often shared jokes, which carried forward to the Grand Slam in Melbourne. Tiafoe commented about the team staying 'locked in' at the Australian Open.
"[You] just have to stay locked," Tiafoe said. "It's the whole thing with the United Cup guys. Just staying locked in. I made a joke about it with the guys at the United Cup asking them before the match, ‘Are you locked?’ It's definitely become a thing." (via WTA Tennis)
Cut to the 2024 US Open, Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz have made it to the singles finals as the first US man and woman to achieve that feat in the same year since 2002. The World No. 6 reminded Fritz of Tiafoe's 'locked-in' comment, ahead of their finals.

Pegula reshared the Instagram story of tennis doubles specialist and compatriot Desirae Krawczyk, who also hinted at the same using lock emojis.
Jessica Pegula - "There's definitely moments where I didn’t want to play tennis"

Pegula had reached the Grand Slam quarterfinals six times but has reached the final for the time at the US Open 2024. However, the road to success was not easy for her, including times when she felt like quitting her sport.
"I don’t know if I thought it's not gonna happen, but there's definitely moments where either I didn’t want to play tennis, I didn’t really know if I wanted to do it anymore. You definitely hit those types of low moments," the 30-year-old said in a post-match conference. [9:23]
She further shared how she persevered with a different perspective every time, leading to one of the biggest accomplishments of her career.
"I’ve had several of those, but in the end I always would kind of snap back and be like okay, what am I talking about. I would always flip the script a little bit and I have always been good at doing that." [9:38]
Pegula will face Sabalenka at Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 7, 2024.