Jessica Pegula brought the Austin finalists to Indian Wells on a private plane

"She can leave away right after her singles final, but she is such a selfless and generous girl," Zhang Shuai said.

Published Mar 03, 2025

Jessica Pegula has a lot of people to thank after winning first title of 2025 in Austin

Talk about a high-class carpool! A quick turnaround for the participants competing on Sunday at the ATX Open was made easier by Jessica Pegula's generosity.

Pegula captured her first title of 2025 with a straight-sets win over McCartney Kessler in the singles final on Sunday afternoon, and encouraged the fans who came out to support the two to stay and watch the doubles final, which Kessler also competed in. But little did fans, or the other players, know that Pegula herself was planning on sticking around before heading off to the looming WTA 1000 BNP Paribas Open, and for good reason. She arranged to have all of the competitors who competed in the doubles final flown to Indian Wells on a private plane, easing any travel burden they may have had in needed to get from Austin to Palm Springs.

Pegula's kind gesture was revealed thanks to social media posts by Zhang Shuai and Yuan Yue in posts on Instagram and Weibo, respectively.

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A post shared by Zhang Shuai (@zhangshuai121)

"She can leave away right after her singles final, but she is such a selfless and generous girl," Zhang wrote on Instagram while chronicling the travel difficulties that quartet would've otherwise had. The 36-year-old said that trips from Austin to nearby airports including Dallas and Houston, or a late-night layover in Los Angeles, just to get to Palm Springs were in their future were it not for Pegula's "warm heart."

"Thank you for showing me the beautiful California morning," Zhang added in the post, which Blinkova reposted to her own Instagram story to also thank world No. 4 Pegula for her "kindness and generosity."

Yuan, the 2024 Austin singles champion who reached the quarterfinals in Indian Wells last year, estimated that the trip saved her at least "nine hours of driving" after she teamed with Blinkova to defeat Zhang and Kessler in a hard-fought three-set match.

Main-draw play at the first combined ATP and WTA 1000-level event of the year begins on Wednesday.

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