Sometimes the strangest things can come to the mind of a professional tennis player.

Jessica Pegula, a crafty and focused competitor 99 percent of the time, was part of the one percent tonight during the first set of her 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Donna Vekic on Saturday night in Indian Wells.

The number 5 seed’s mind wandered a bit as she struggled to control the ball against the hard-hitting Croatian.

“I was thinking, ‘Wow, wouldn’t this be great if I lose.’ I thought, ‘Maybe I can get out of the sponsor thing I have to do tomorrow,’” he said.

In the end, Pegula emerged from hyperspace and, as she often does, won a three-set battle to set up a third-round clash with Jelena Ostapenko (Pegula leads the matchup, 3-2).

A problem solver extraordinaire, Pegula has won 14 of her last 17 matches and has prevailed in seven of the last 12 matches in which she lost the first set.

“I think I’ve played a lot of matches and lately I’ve had some really good three-set matches where I also felt pretty comfortable knowing I could turn it around,” she said.

Pegula said increased tension on the racquet helped her flip the script on No. 103-ranked Vekic.

“I think I flipped the switch pretty quickly,” he said. “I changed, like the ball was flying towards me, so I changed to a tighter racket. That gave me a little more freedom to feel like I could hit my shots, and I think that helped.

“I think I’m comfortable in those situations. There’s always a little bit of panic, but at the same time, I’ve been dealing with those games for a while, and maybe not as much as before.”