Final victory at the US Open? Jessica Pegula is living her “childhood dream”

Jessica Pegula is no ordinary tennis player: her family owns a multi-billion dollar sports empire, and she takes the subway to the US Open. Now she’s challenging the favorite in the final.

Jessica Pegula looked over at her loved ones in the stands and fought back tears. With her emotional comeback victory, the American tennis player with the unusual life story fulfilled her “childhood dream” of reaching the final of the US Open.

“The title would mean the world to me,” enthused the 30-year-old after losing 1:6, 6:4, 6:2 to Czech Karolina Muchova in the semifinals, addressing her family. “I’m so happy that I can share this moment with them.”

Sitting in the seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, his husband, brother and sister were in their box, as was his father Terrence from a box. The 73-year-old made his billion-dollar fortune in oil and gas, is one of the 400 richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, and, together with his wife Kim, owns a sports empire with the NFL team Buffalo Bills and the NHL team Buffalo Sabres.

Tennis ace Pegula: “I don’t know how I did it”

Pegula’s supporters had to wait a long time on the way to the final against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated American Emma Navarro 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) in the first semi-final.

On her own serve, the world number six was already 1:6, 0:2 and 30:40 behind, but fought her way back into the now high-class game and turned the party around.

“She made me look like a rookie. I wanted to cry. It was so embarrassing because she destroyed me,” Pegula said of the start of the party. “I don’t know how I managed to turn that game around.”

This energetic performance means that US fans can hope for the second women’s title win in the series after Coco Gauff last year. For Pegula, who comes from Buffalo, New York, this is the first Grand Slam final ever, after she had previously failed in the quarterfinals of the four major tournaments six times.

Tennis: Pegula fights against public scepticism

This is also why Pegula has had to repeatedly fight against public scepticism in her career, given her family’s wealth.

When the British newspaper “The Times” wrote in 2023, after the Wimbledon exit in the round of eight, that Pegula needed a dynamic that her billions could not buy, she hit back that she would definitely not buy that article. She captioned her post on social media with a trash can emoji.

Pegula does not fit the classic clichés. During the US Open, she posted a video on Instagram of herself taking the subway to the facility in the Queens district.

What was she most upset about? “That people think I have a butler, that I’m chauffeured around, that I have a private limousine,” she said during the tournament. “That’s definitely not who I am.”

Tennis: Pegula’s opponent wants to shake off final experience

The fans in New York love her either way. A factor that her opponent in the final also takes into account in her preparation. In last year’s final, Sabalenka lost her first US Open title against crowd favorite Gauff after winning the first set – partly because the crowd unnerved her. And now, after a stable start, she also faltered in the final phase against Navarro, who was cheered on frenetically.

“Last year was a very hard experience, a very hard lesson. I said to myself today: ‘No, no, no, Aryna,'” the Belarusian said after her match. “It won’t happen again. You have to control your emotions.”

And so Sabalenka continued her charm offensive after reaching the final. “Now you’re cheering for me, that’s a bit late,” she said jokingly to the cheering fans after the victory. “Even though you were cheering her on, I had goosebumps, it was an incredible atmosphere.”

At the end, she tried to win the audience over to her side with a lure offer and announced over the stadium microphone: “Margaritas for everyone”.