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NEW YORK -- Jessica Pegula was one of the first players to compete at the US Open, and she learned last year that starting Sunday provided some nice relief.
"It is a little bit weird, but I did kind of enjoy that I could breathe for the next couple of days and everyone else is still freaking out about whether they're going to win their first round," she said.
The head start is great -- unless it's a head start back to the airport.
"We were just talking about it, and I said it's so nice to play on Sunday when you win. But if you lose it's not nice, because you feel like the tournament didn't even start and you're out of it," No. 11 seed Marta Kostyuk said.