McCartney Kessler can carry the future of American tennis with Coco Gauff | FirstSportz Exclusive

American tennis is on the rise again on the WTA tour. After Serena Williams‘ retirement, many thought that American tennis would struggle for a while. However, the emergence of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula has brought U.S. tennis back to life. Another name starting to gain attention is McCartney Kessler.

Kessler was outside the top 100 until the end of 2024. However, her tremendous rise and breakthrough wins have resulted in her reaching a career-high ranking of World No. 47.

Whether she will reach the same level as Pegula and Gauff remains to be seen. After all, Pegula reached the US Open final and has a Masters 1000 title to her name. Gauff has achieved even greater feats, winning the US Open in 2023 before claiming the WTA Finals in 2024.

Kessler has had breakthrough wins in her career. In Dubai, she defeated Gauff, announcing herself to the world. Moreover, she reached her third WTA final at the ATX Open. However, that is nothing compared to what Pegula and Gauff have accomplished, so she knows she has a lot of work ahead to reach their level.

McCartney Kessler reveals the story behind Jessica Pegula’s private jet

American rising star McCartney Kessler joined the conversation about Jessica Pegula’s kind gesture. Pegula took Kessler and her doubles partner, Zhang Shuai, to Indian Wells on a private jet. Kessler, 25, thanked Pegula for her patience before they boarded the flight.

I don’t know whose jet it actually was, but it went directly to Indian Wells. She (Jessica Pegula) was so nice to wait until we were done with the doubles finals. Its really nice of her, she could have come to Indian Wells four hours earlier with her husband. However, she was nice enough to wait.

McCartner Kessler said in the Fantastic Tennis podcast

Pegula had just defeated Kessler in the Austin singles final. After that, she offered her private jet to four players so they could fly straight from Texas to California. This saved them from long travel delays.

She even waited for the doubles final to finish before leaving. Kessler and Zhang lost to Yue Yuan and Anna Blinkova. Without Pegula’s jet, the players would have had to take long flights with stopovers.

Blinkova and Yue later shared Zhang’s Instagram post about the trip. They also thanked Pegula for her generosity. Pegula, 31, comes from a wealthy family that owns the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres.

McCartner Kessler reveals how she deals with a loss

The 25-year-old tennis star McCartner Kessler has provided deep analysis on how she deals with losses in her career. She has been one of the rising stars of the WTA tour, but that has come with numerous setbacks and defeats.

It depends on the type of loss and also at what point of the tournament, the loss happens. It is so quick that I lost in the singles, and 30 minutes later, I was out playing doubles. Then we went to Indian Wells and our goal was to really focus on having a great week here.

McCartner Kessler said in the Fantastic Tennis podcast

Regardless of the stage at which Kessler loses, she has experienced many contrasting defeats in the past month. At the Qatar Open, she won only two games against Ons Jabeur, as the Tunisian dominated the match, leaving her with no chance.

However, Kessler has also endured difficult defeats. Despite securing a career breakthrough win over Coco Gauff, she lost in a final-set tiebreak to Karolina Muchova in the Dubai Round of 16.

Although she has risen to a career-high ranking of World No. 47, her greatest achievement is learning how to overcome difficult defeats. As an active doubles player as well, mastering this skill is even more crucial.