Tennis News: Jessica Pegula, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa

Jessica Pegula has been playing some brilliant tennis recently. She had a nine-match winning streak snapped recently by Aryna Sabalenka in the Cincinnati Open, but there is clearly no shame in that. Sabalenka is an excellent player, especially on a hard court, and is ranked higher than Pegula.

In her post-match speech, Pegula - nearly accidentally - gave Sabalenka the highest praise one player could give another. The American was not being dismissive of the Belarusian. She simply misheard a name and assumed the person was speaking of Sabalenka.

What happened was that Pegula heard someone say "Serena" before she gave her remarks when in reality the name spoken was "Aryna." Pegula was OK with it either way. The Belarusian had crushed the American 6-3 7-5 in the final. Pegula did not play well but Sabalenka was obviously the better player.

Jessica Pegula praises Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas get a W

Pegula said on-court after the match to the crowd, "Aryna and I thought he said Serena. But it felt like Serena today with the way you were serving there today. I don't know I may have wanted Serena instead of Aryna today but congratulations to you."

There is likely nothing a player can hear other than their opponent wishes they had been played an in-form Serena Williams instead of them. Aryna Sabalenka can be that good, though.

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa can be pretty good as well. They are one of tennis's power couples, of course, but they are darn good players as well. They teamed up to play mixed doubles as part of the fan fest ahead of the US Open, playing a tournament of one-set matches that also featured players such as Nick Kyrgios partnering with Naomi Osaka (in Kobe Bryant jerseys, no less), Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton, and Taylor Fritz playing with Amanda Anisimova.

In the end, Badosa and Tsitsipas were the ones who took home the title after defeating Anisimova and Fritz in the final 6-3. The duo also defeated Gauff and Shelton 6-4.

After the match, Tsitsipas said, "One of the coolest date nights I could’ve asked for. I'm super grateful we were able to produce some good tennis in combination with having fun and getting to share that with that special person."

That is pretty sweet, right? The match overall might have been meaningless but the memories are not.

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