Jessica Pegula has cemented her status as arguably the most consistent player on the tour. Ranked at No. 5 in the world, the American has yet to lift a Grand Slam title, but she’s achieved something that even the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek haven’t. Pegula beat Clara Tauson 6-3 2-6 6-4 to reach the last four in Dubai on Thursday, becoming the first player in a decade to reach seven straight tour-level semi-finals.

Previously, Agnieszka Radwanska managed seven straight semis from Beijing 2015 to Indian Wells in 2016. Pegula’s run started back at the US Open, her home Grand Slam tournament, where she lost to world No. 1 and eventual champion Sabalenka in a hard-fought semi-final.

Since then, she’s finished runner-up at the Wuhan Open and reached the last four of the China Open, WTA Finals, Brisbane International, Australian Open, and now the Dubai Tennis Championships. But Pegula has admitted she felt “overly frustrated” right before her run of consistency began at Flushing Meadows.

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The 31-year-old won only one match at each of the WTA 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati, leading into the US Open. She was also stunned in the first round of Wimbledon last summer, but regrouped to reach a string of semi-finals.

“Since last summer, I was working on a lot of things. I didn’t play well in – I don’t know where it was – Montreal, Cincinnati. I felt like I had a couple losses that I wasn’t playing well. I didn’t feel like myself. I didn’t feel like I was playing my game. I was kind of getting overly frustrated,” the world No. 5 explained.

“I think even though I knew at the time it was tough, I knew if I could kind of come out of that, figure out what it is I needed to change and do better, that I was going to become a much better player. My coaches and I worked on a lot of stuff to get my game back, to emphasise what I do really well, kind of get back to the true roots of my game, just make that even better and more efficient.

“I think I’ve been serving a lot better. Physically been feeling good. Moving better again. I think I had a little bit of a chronic knee thing that’s been back and forth since probably over a year ago. That’s been feeling a lot better. There’s a lot of things. But honestly been working on my game a lot. I think I’ve become a better player over the last six months.”

Pegula hopes that her run won’t end in the semi-finals this week, as she faces No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova for for a place in the championship match. “Just played her in Australia. I’ve played her many times. We have had a lot of really close matches. It will be interesting to see,” she added.

The American’s semi-final stint is extra impressive given her extracurriculars on and off the court. Pegula has also been playing doubles this week in Dubai, teaming up with Giuliana Olmos. She launched a podcast, The Players Box, with Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk last summer, and they release weekly episodes.

Pegula has also been a long-serving member of the WTA Player Council and, earlier this week, it was announced that she will chair the new Tour Architecture Council, which has been created to reform the WTA Tour calendar. It’s no surprise the nine-time title winner is also involved in behind-the-scenes elements of the game – her father, Terry Pegula, owns the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of £6.9billion.

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